Loss of Control
by Koniko-chan
Summary: After Justice League Episode Grudge Match, the girls call an emergency meeting to discuss the security breach, problem being it 's too late. Having recovered from Lex's first attack, Batman, and a few others are stuck in an unknown land. John, crushed after events with Lex has started a new adventure. pairings BW JS Rated T to be safe for violence and villains' plots.
1. Chapter 1 Opps

Title: Loss of Control

By: Koniko-chan

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's note: This story takes place after the Justice League Unlimited Episode: Grudge Match. I was rather disappointed that we never got to see the guys reactions to what occurred to the female league members, so we open up with that idea in mind. And we'll let the characters take the story from here. Feedback welcome.

Chapter 1 Opps….

It was busy on the watch tower, heroes and human assistants rushed about going to meetings, handling the various emergencies that were occurring on Earth and just trying to go about the regular daily needs of food, training, relaxing and sleep….

Bruce let out a mental sigh, this was his equipment yes, but he still wasn't a big people person. When the original 7 leaguers expanded to the huge group they were now it was seen in his eyes as necessary- a way to keep an eye on all of those meta humans and overly agile "heroes" that had the potential to go rouge. A flicker of a smirk danced across his face for a heartbeat, that's why it was rather hilarious that while he was still a part timer, Batman was also a founding member.

The whole reason he was up here at 9 o'clock in the morning was to attend one of these founder meetings. He frowned thinking about it. Clark had contacted him early this morning telling him that the founding members were having an emergency meeting. To have a meeting so last minute, well it must be big. Bruce was mentally running his mind over anything he could possibly guess the meeting to be about. Honestly everything to his knowledge was moving rather smoothly… Bruce scowled as he quicken his pace to the meeting room. He had a sinking feeling that he wasn't going to like what awaited him in that room, he hated surprises…

As the dark caped hero weaved through several second generation members of the league a red blurr zipped in front of him and stopped. "Morn'in' Batman." Flash greeted with a carefree smile.

Bruce gave Wally one of his stern looks, not in the mood for Flash's cheery demeanor first thing in the morning.

Flash seemed to be studying Batman carefully, his head cocked in thought, as Batman went to step around the bright red spandex clad hero, Wally figured it out, "Oh, I get it! No worries I got you covered Bats!" he called before zipping off down the corridor.

Bruce's reprieve was short lived however as before he could take three steps more, the Flash was back with a cup of coffee in his hands. "I know you are a night person, so the early hour must be getting to you…" He stated with a friendly smile, holding the cup out in offering.

Bruce looked at the proffered cup and was about to walk past to tell Wally with his actions that he wasn't in need of coffee, nor was he in the mood, but then his eyes landed on two of his other teammates.

Diana and Shayera came walking side by side down the hallway in deep conversation. The girls had mostly mended their old friendship but there were still cracks in it from the betrayal that occurred a couple years ago. Batman certainly hadn't completely let it go, and Diana well she was getting there…. Bruce worried about the level of trust that the league put in Shayera… she betrayed them once already, what was to stop her from doing it again? His eyes narrowed further as he noted the numerous healing bruises on the Thanagarian's face and arms. What had happened last night?

Not realizing he had frozen in surprise and reflection he was brought back to the present by Flash grinning and wiggling the cup side to side in front of his face. "Huh, huh?" he grunted enthusiastically.

Annoyed at being caught, Batman snatched the cup out of Flash's hand, "I'll take it, if only to save you from the extra caffeine. You don't need anymore." He bit taking a drink of the dark bitter liquid.

Flash sighed as he watched Batman pass by, "You're welcome!" he called to Batman's retreating form, before slumping a bit and blowing some air out in frustration, Batman was always harsh and in a mood, but still Wally had wanted to try and help the billionaire to get up on the right side of the cave this morning…. Mission failed.

"I can't believe that our comlinks were hacked." Diana sighed looking at Shayera taking a drink of her mocha iced coffee.

Shayera nodded, "It's a scary thought, I mean they could have made us do anything without our knowledge."

Diana nodded, "Yes, well at least it was caught soon enough that the damage was minimal…"

Shayera nodded as well thinking of how close she had come to getting her and Vixen's heads slammed together by the amazon warrior last night.

Suddenly each girl felt an arm on their shoulders. Blue and green eyes turned and locked in on the Flash that had inserted himself between the two feminine founding members. "Morning ladies!" He greeted already over his failed attempt to turn Batman into a morning person. "So what ya' talking about?" He inquired with a joyous grin.

Diana looked at Wally grateful for his enthusiasm. "We were just talking about last night's events." She answered carefully, "You'll hear more about it when we get into the meeting room."

Shayera nodded, "Yeah, it was a fun night…" she grumbled sarcastically under her breath.

Flash frowned looking the two girls over, Wonder Woman looked perfect, while Shayera had several small bruises…including one on her left cheek, "I see…" he said now really wanting to know what happened to the girls the previous evening.

Arriving at the founding member meeting room, Shayera ducked her head a bit to hide the pain in her gaze. John stood looking out the window regally with his hands behind his back. John seemed to have been talking with Superman who had been standing next to him.

Wally while he may seem naive, was more perceptive than many of his teammates gave him credit for, caught the slight movement Hawkgirl made and quickly re-slid his arm around her shoulders, "Come on Shayera!" He chirped energetically as he steered her to her chair. Flash was quick to pull it out for her and push the seat back into the table.

John had turned around to catch Flash's little show and his fist clenched fractionally in irritation. Flash KNEW that Shayera and he shared a history…. And John knew they were supposed to have a son together, and yet…. He was honestly in a bad place, he loved Shayera but after her betrayal and her quick departure he had been hurt and heartbroken… When they opened the league up to new members, well Vixen had come on board and had gone out of her way to catch his eye- and oh had she succeeded! Problem being now he was stuck, he didn't want to hurt Vixen – he loved her, but yet he knew Shayera was supposed to be his too… and there were still feelings there - Honestly he didn't know what he wanted! However, that lack of awareness was not an invitation for one of his friends – despite being an irritant sometimes – to move in on his ex…

Batman had already taken his seat at the table. Batman was looking at the other occupants out of the corners of his eyes wondering if he'd need to say something to get this meeting going….

Bruce's thoughts were cut short when he felt a familiar presence take the seat beside him. Batman was careful to not get caught as his eye discreetly slid to the side to look at Diana in his peripheral vision, the lenses in the Batman mask hiding the movement from onlookers. Bruce knew that Diana liked him, she had made it obvious. He had blatantly discouraged it and as of late, it seemed she had gotten the message as she was preferring to partner herself with J'onn more often- well, that is, until he had left the league. It didn't bother him…. I mean there was nothing romantic going on between the amazon and martian…. Not that he cared… He caught himself staring at her long exposed creamy legs, being grateful that there were no sign of bruising there that Shayera had exhibited. Catching himself Batman mentally shook himself out of his thoughts as he picked up the cup of coffee to distract himself. Still wanting to know what had happened to Shayera last night to inflict the damage that was apparent today.

Diana sat looking at Batman, she knew that he had pushed her away repeatedly and as much as she wanted to go after him, she was respecting his wishes for the time and not pushing the matter, yet. However, she had seen how he had dug for her in Gorilla City, and how he stood beside her in Kaznia, or even what she had heard from Zatanna about Batman singing to get her back…. There was something there. Part of her wondered how he would react to the news she and Shayera were bringing to the table.

Finally, Superman, and Green Lantern took their seats and completed the group. Diana stood placing her hands shoulder's width apart on the table. "Shayera and I called this meeting because our security has been compromised." She stated smoothly. Her voice commanding attention and respect.

Batman cocked an eyebrow, he wasn't liking where this was starting…. His security was tight, it should be near impossible to hack into… How was it compromised?

Superman frowned at the news looking at the amazon princess attentively. John was quick to give Shayera an assessing look and noted the fading bruises on her cheek and arms… He had been so focused on Flash how could he have failed to notice that?

Diana continued looking at them all seriously, "It was Roulette, she hacked into the comlink signal and-"

Diana was suddenly unable to finish because at that moment, Flash had flipped the table and was rushing at Diana.

Wonder Woman looked at the red blur wide eyed and managed to let out a gasp of surprise before he rammed into her slamming her into the window hard enough to crack the sturdy glass giving it the image that Diana was trapped in the center of a spider web and Flash as the spider had a hold of her.

Shayera may have been sore but quickly stood up, "Flash-" she tried to call out to her friend, what had gotten into him… But her assistance was quickly halted when a dark hand roughly grabbed hers in his own. "Ow!" Shayera moved her head to look up at the Green Lantern's eyes. "John what's the-"

A hard hit struck Shayera in the back of the head, making her see stars before slipping into the awaiting arms of darkness.

Diana was stunned for a heartbeat, her spine aching from the fast impact. However, she did manage to slam a hit into Flash causing the speedster to sail through the air backward and crash into the opposing wall hard enough to dent it and stun the speedster. Not having any time to breathe, Superman's laser vision burned her arm. With a cry, Diana quickly raised her bracelet to block the beam. Superman's laser beams still shooting, he started to stalk towards Wonder Woman.

Diana was in a good deal of pain, and even with fast healing abilities it was going to slow her down… Facing the guys, it occurred to Diana that this was just like what had been described to her last night at the Mega brawl. That members like herself had been controlled by their earpieces to fight….

Blocking a hit from Clark with her right hand and reflecting the laser beams with her left she defended herself, mind racing. They destroyed the machine… that's why it was thought to be ok to get a couple hours of sleep before calling the meeting and dealing with the problem. All of the girls had been exhausted and some really hurt… It had been 7 am by the time they had left the arena and thus the 9 am meeting time….Apparently that had been a poor choice on her part…. And now it was going to cost them all.

Diana was stepping backward carefully preparing herself to pull back quickly and try to get close enough to get a hit into Superman that maybe she could get his comlink…. She wasn't sure how long Flash would be out. Trying to keep her eye on what Clark was doing, she chanced a glace towards the rest of the room. Shayera was in Green Lantern's arms and didn't seem conscious… Shayera had really taken a beating from her last night… She skidded backward in a hurry as she noticed Batman with a blow dart gun trained on her. The dart sailed through the air and bounced off of Superman harmlessly as the man of Steel was closing in on her. She was at a bit of a disadvantage with the surprise attack and having to watch so many opponents. Though her back was slowly starting to repair itself, it wasn't doing it fast enough.

Her mind rapidly trying to plan, who should she try and free from the mind control first? Superman would be impossible for her at the moment. There were too many wild cards for her to focus.

She dodged another blow dart and noted with displeasure that Green Lantern was laying Shayera down to engage her as well. Another movement from the wall told Diana Flash would soon be a problem too.

"Hera, give me strength." She breathed as she started to fly around the room in no particular pattern, dodging strikes from Superman, bright green restraints that grabbed at her from Green Lantern and two exploding batarangs, and Bruce's fist. Her back was pounding at each strong movement she made to dodge or switch directions, this slowed her down a bit but she forced herself to ignore the pain and keep going.

Luck seemed to have favored her even a little as the batarangs missed her but ended up exploding by Superman and slowed him down for a few heartbeats.

Taking a risk, Diana tackled Bruce to the ground and tried to grab his ear piece. She was rewarded with a swift kick to her side and was flung off of him across the room.

Green Lantern had taken aim and was trying to catch Wonder Woman but had not anticipated her abrupt flight. The ring had trapped Batman inside of a bubble.

Diana winced as she stubbornly pushed herself to her feet and was about to rush over to try and get to Bruce's comlink once more, but was tackled by Superman. He slammed Diana to the floor, shaking the room. Diana let out a cry of pain as her back took the brunt of the hit. Flash zipped over to stand by Superman ready to act if the princess got up. Green Lantern and Batman soon joined Flash standing and watching.

Wincing, Diana was getting tired of this, and if she didn't do something soon she'd be out too and then who knows what would happen to them… Wrestling one hand free she raised it and slammed it against Superman's ear hard. Knocking Clark's head to the side.

Using her feet to push Superman off of her, the Man of Steel slammed into the ceiling before thudding to the floor. Trying to climb to his feet he was a bit disorientated from the hit to the ear he took.

Frantic to make some headway, Diana letting out a cry of pain as she moved, pushed herself off the ground and tried to slam herself into Batman. Green Lantern used the ring to block off part of the room so she couldn't get too far. She was almost to Batman, but she slammed into the Flash instead when he zipped into her path.

In an instant, he had his arms wrapped around her waist to try to hold her still so Batman or John could apprehend her, but her arms were free and quick as she could the amazon grabbed the earpiece from the Scarlet Speedster and crushed it.

John shot a green boxing glove at Diana, who pushed with all her might against Flash causing the pair of them to tumble to the floor and for her immediate release from the rapidly recovering Flash. The boxing glove catching a recovering Superman in the jaw. Letting out another cry of pain Wonder Woman hit the floor and tumbled head over heels before coming to rest on her back once more.

Flash had also rolled twice before getting to his feet and looking around the room in surprise. "What happened to the room?" He asked trying to make sense of the destruction that lay around him.

The others not yet recognizing Flash as a threat continued to attack Wonder Woman.

Diana shakily was trying to force herself up but her back protested harshly. A whimper escaped from her as she failed to raise. Green Lantern's ring got to her first forming a giant hand that picked her up and started to squeeze her.

Diana bit her lip to try and hold back another cry as fire shot up her back injury. Her eyes tearing up as she struggled to stay conscious.

Flash looked on in shocked horror for a couple heartbeats not understanding why the others were attacking Diana and why Shayera was down for the count.

"Hey guys?" Flash asked narrowing his eyes, "Is there something wrong with Diana?" He had seen where his impatience had cost the team before and as his memory had some holes in it, maybe Diana was a fake or out of control or evil? If he rushed to help her as he wanted to maybe he would be hurting Diana more than helping her.

"We need to take care of the girls," Superman said simply with no real emotion in his words.

"They aren't with us yet." Green Lantern finished.

Flash was about to reply when Diana caught his undivided attention.

Diana opened her mouth letting out another whimper as she struggled to hold on, pushing with all her might she wasn't able to escape. This four to one surprise attack had taken a toll on her. "Flash, get the comlinks and – Ah-hahhhh, destroy them." She called out to him, glad that she now had a conscious ally.

Flash frowned, outside of Batman being upset he destroyed some of the tech, what did it hurt to try what Diana was saying to see if she was right. Observing her struggle and try not to show her pain was hard to watch. Every fiber of him wanted to save her - it was a not so big secret that Batman deeply cared for the amazon, surely he wouldn't be standing idly by if this was real Diana… He'd take Batman's comlink first.

Flash zipped over to where Batman stood passively watching the capture of Diana and quickly grabbed the comlink from the Dark Knight's ear. Before his hand could fully get out of range to destroy the tiny gadget, Flash was socked in the stomach and Batman was rapidly racing after him. Flash let out a grunt of pain as he skidded back a few feet and was quick to dodge the punch that was aimed for his head by leaning way back. Flash went to dash to the right away from his aggressive teammate but Bruce shot a leg out tripping Wally and sending him crashing into Green Lantern. Losing his focus, Diana dropped to the ground unconscious. The comlink flew out of Wally's hand and landed on the floor several feet away.

Batman was rapidly approaching Flash, as Green Lantern was starting to collet himself as well in order to confront the new threat. Superman not recognizing Wally as being a problem himself yet, just walked over to where Diana had fallen and scooped up the amazon and carelessly slung her over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He then headed towards where Shayera was slowly coming to on one of the meeting room chairs.

Flash rapidly got up and snatched Green Lantern's comlink out of his ear too. Rushing over to where Batman's had flew earlier Wally went to scoop it up when a batarang flew by baring his target from his fingers for a moment. Giving time for John to start rapidly firing green streaks of light at Wally trying to catch the speedster.

Shayera sat up feeling a wave of vertigo spiral through her. Placing a hand to her throbbing head she blinked a few times to see what looked like Flash fighting Batman and Lantern. Still trying to get her bearings, she suddenly felt herself being lifted. Letting out a surprised gasp and wincing from the movement her eyes landed on Superman who had a very familiar pair of feminine legs incased in red boots hanging over his shoulder. "Diana!"

"Wow, this all over coffee?" Wally stated trying to crack a joke as he dodged out of the way. "I'll be sure to get you a cup too next time!" He called out to John, as he then recalled that at least John's comlink was in his hand still. Flash squeezed his hand as hard as he could and crushed the tiny electronic.

Instantly the light show stopped hunting him and John clutched his head shaking it a bit to regain his composure. Flash skidded to a stop and looked at John. It seemed like Diana was right, the comlinks were causing the other men to attack, so that ment… uh oh… Wally turned to look at where Shayera had been and saw the Thanagarian warrior was struggling with Superman who had Diana crashed on one shoulder and was trying to incapacitate Shayera who was missing one mace currently. So distracted with this scene, Flash missed Batman's movements and took a direct hit to stomach and a kick to the jaw. Flash landed a few feet back on the ground. Batman rapidly closing the gap.

John looked around him, "Shayera!" He called out seeing her plight.

Flash stopped John mid run as he called out, "Crush the comlink by the South wall first!"

John turned his head to see Flash on the ground with Batman on top of him the two locked hands struggling for dominance in the fight.

Everything screamed for him to help Shayera first, but Flash needed him to crush the comlink for some reason. The entire situation seemed odd. What was Superman doing anyway?

Making the choice to help Shayera, John imagined a large boot as it kicked Superman in the upper chest.

The Man of Steel stumbled back a few steps, giving Shayera the chance to get free from this arms and put some distance between the two. Diana slipping off of Clark's shoulder and dropping to the floor.

Superman was in front of John in the blink of an eye as he was about to punch the former marine, John quickly used the ring to make a shield. Superman was slamming his fists against the shield repeatedly trying to get to the one that attacked him, the traitor that was not with them.

Shayera had heard what Flash had told John, and while she was grateful that John had helped her, if this was the same mind control from last night crushing that comlink meant another ally. Flying over to the South wall, Shayera saw the forgotten gadget and landed hard on it. The comlink fizzled and crunched under her boot.

Superman had almost gotten through to John, the green shield cracking from the pressure, when Clark suddenly stopped. Before John could fully process what was going on, the Man of Steel had promptly moved over to where Diana's fallen form was and scooped her into his arms before rocketing out the conference room door.

John catching up to the situation was already flying towards the door hoping to catch up to his friends before he lost them.

Flash was still struggling with Batman when Bruce stopped pushing and looked down at Flash in confusion for a moment before glaring at him and standing up. "What's going on?" He demanded. His temper flaring as he did not like having holes in his memory.

Flash sighed as he stood up, "Tell you later, right now we need to get to Superman's comlink and crush it."

Looking around the room it was swiftly becoming apparent that Superman had left the room.

To be continued….


	2. Chapter 2 Chaos

Loss of Control

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Chapter 2 Chaos

John stopped hovering in the air as he exited the conference room in shock. Before him the entire watch tower seemed to be in chaos. He was still not too sure what was happening as he saw an all-out war occurring in the corridor outside the conference room.

Vixen was currently in combat with Vigilante and Captain Marvel. Ice was currently combatting the Atom, Dove and Hawk.

Shaking himself out of his stupider, John decided to continue his chase of Superman first as he had Diana. Then he'd try to sort out who was themselves and who wasn't…

….

Back in the conference room, Flash looked around the room and frowned when he didn't see Superman there anymore. Of course taking another look, another two individuals were missing, John and Diana. Flash swallowed at that revelation, last he saw Diana had been out cold… This can't be good he thought darkly.

Batman was also taking stock of the room. He turned to Flash using years of practice to control his emotions trying to keep focused and calm as he too noticed three missing members. "Superman is out of control." He half stated and half questioned recalling Flash's command to crush Superman's comlink, trying to be sure he knew the stakes before he ran off to take care of things.

Flash nodded. "Yes, though I'm not sure why, if we destroy the comlink it seems to free the person."

Shayera chose that moment to speak up, her head still throbbing, she knew she'd need the guys to understand a bit in order to be of help. Using her right hand to steady herself with the wall she summarized, "The short version, is that someone is using a signal to control Justice League members with our comlinks, once the comlink is crushed the member snaps out of it."

Batman gave a curt nod and before either Flash or Shayera had made a move Batman was already sprinting out the door, fingering a lead lined pocket on his utility belt.

Flash sighed and shrugged, "And I thought I was fast." He stated before zipping off as well.

Shayera grunted to herself, she needed to join the fight despite her current temporary handicaps, but to be at the best she could be she would need to retrieve her mace from her room.

…

Luther was not as happy as he could have been. He had helped set up Roulette with the machine that sent out the signals for mind control to use in her Glamor Slam. It had been ingenious and was working perfectly, until last night… Last night, Roulette had gotten cocky and bit off more than she could chew. If the idiot had come to him, he could have created new earpieces to allow Roulette control over the girls, but instead she chose to eliminate them… It doesn't work well if they know the secret. It had cost him his cash cow and Roulette her business and freedom.

Lex knowing this did not want to waste the opportunity, he had built a second machine just in case Roulette's games fell apart. It was too good of a chance to cripple the Justice League. As most of the League members were male, even if all the female members had lost their comlinks if the guys still where wearing them, he could control a majority of his enemies. Not to mention most of the female population was either exhausted, or injured from their participation in the Mega Brawl throughout the week. Thus, he could feasibly over take the entire League by lunch. Lex just hoped that the girls hadn't gotten around to telling anyone yet, or at least they hadn't gotten around to fixing it yet.

The machine was rather simple, all Lex had to do was select the members he wanted to control from the Justice League roster. The signal went out and those that were successfully under his control showed up on the computer screen. Lex had been ecstatic to see most of the male members names appear after he had activated the machine half an hour ago. Though the hardest hitters, Flash, Green Lantern, and Batman had one by one dropped off. Fearing he'd lose Superman too he had selected his arch enemy and commanded he come to Lex co in Metropolis.

All of his controlled Justice League members had instructions to knock out and bring along any of the girls or attacking members they could get ahold of on their way out.

He selected a few more random members to command to Lex co and smirked darkly. Any members that made it to his building he'd be able to control, any non-controlled members brought in he'd be prepared to indoctrinate them into his service. Now the wheels spinning in his head, depending on who showed up he'd be able to start to plan how to use them best. He was still trying to recover Brainiac from the small chunk he'd received from Grodd with no success. Looking at the roster again, He selected the Atom, and Captain Atom to report to him as well. They may prove useful…

…

Superman had headed straight for the teleporter room. The Red Tornado was at the controls, His red and yellow mask tilted down as he was focused on plugging in coordinates into the machinery.

A fight was occurring there too, Super Girl was trading blows with Booster Gold, Captain Atom, and the Creeper.

Kara pulled her fist back and getting a flying start, rushed towards Captain Atom trying to knock the older team member out. However, Kara never made it to her destination as she was suddenly struck hard on the side by Creeper. Kara flew through the air and slammed into Clark on his way in. Clark stumbled a few steps but managed to keep a hold on Diana and remain standing.

Kara looked up at her cousin relieved, "Kal! Am I glad to see you!" She exclaimed standing back up. A lot of the members are going crazy and- " She stopped as her eyes landed on Diana's unresponsive form in her cousin's arms. "Kal?" she questioned nervously, honestly having momentarily forgot about her fight.

"Out of my way. I need to go." Superman simply stated as he shifted Wonder Woman in his arms to raise one of his hands and knock Kara roughly to the side.

Kara let out a cry of pain and shock, whatever it was had gotten Kal too. She stood up determined to stop her cousin when her forgotten battle came back to haunt her. A double blast of gold and silver energy from Booster Gold's golden armbands and from Captain Atom struck her in the back. Letting out a sharp cry of pain she turned around as best she could to confront her attackers once more. The blasts still barreling into her she shakily raised her arms and began to strike at the air in hard, fast, powerful, moves forcing the air pressure to create a temporary shield of sorts and keep the power blasts from continuing to touch her.

She was managing to hold back the blasts but it took all of her focus and concentration to do so. She continued to punch rapidly as she tried to gain ground in the fight. If she didn't know any better she'd almost think they were being controlled like she and many of the other girls were throughout the past week. She had only made it in the ring earlier in the week according to Roulettes book keeping, but she had been summoned and kept on reserve for last night's matches. Thus her lack of comlink in her ear now…. That had to be it! But she'd have to get the comlinks out of their ears….. This wasn't going to be easy. She knew she could do it but 3 to one made it tricky.

Step by step she was gaining ground, though she was working up quite a sweat… She was worried about Kal and Diana too, but she had her hands full at the moment. So focused on defeating the beams and her cousin the Creeper was able to rush up and grab a hold of her, pinning her arms with in his yellowed ones. Granted she was stronger but that moment of her arms being down allowed the beams to break through to her again. Of course it also hit the Creeper… The two of them shrieked as the energy rushed through their systems.

Clark made it to the teleporter, he took his place on one of the five marked spots on the floor, Metamorpho was also standing on a spot. John made it into the teleporter room just in time to see the three League members fade away to wherever Red Tornado had sent them.

John's eyes widened as he let out a curse. He would have rushed to see where they were sent to, but Super Girl's screams drew his attention. Narrowing his eyes he summoned the power of his ring to shield her and Creeper from the blasts, though he fully encased them to try and remove any comlinks that either Super Girl or Creeper may have in their ears. Both Kara and Creeper dropped to their knees breathing hard. Captain Atom, ignored the battle and now made his way towards the teleporter himself, while Booster Gold continued to try and break the shield with his energy blasts.

Over the battle, no one had really noticed but Skeets floated beside Booster Gold frantically trying to get through to his charge, "Sir, Sir, you need to stop. There is no reason to fight your allies." The small, gold and black bot was zipping around in front of the unresponsive hero trying to get through to him.

The Green Lantern used his ring to quickly do a sweep of both of Kara's and Creeper's ears as the luminous emerald energy relieved Creeper of the tiny earbud, crushing it. The former marine then released the two turning his energy bubble onto Booster Gold.

…

Flash was moving as fast as he could to check ears and remove the comlinks as he came across them, though some members were easier to help than others. Those whose ears were covered by their costumes were harder to get to, not impossible but still he had to work harder to find the device. However, if these brainwashed members were otherwise engaged in a fight it made Flash's job all the easier, he could whip in and free his comrades before they even realized he was there to fight.

….

Batman was moving quickly through the watch tower, his goal was to get to the security womb so he could find both Superman and Wonder Woman and get a better understanding of the situation on board.

Bruce had a terrible feeling nagging at him, last he knew Diana was addressing the group about a security flaw and the next thing he knows he is on the floor attacking Wally and she's nowhere to be seen…. Did she go rouge too? Or was she taken? Injured? No one mentioned her at all, only that Superman was out of control…

He had passed so many fights in progress, each room practically had a fight occurring in it if not two or more. Bruce knew each of those battles could use a hand, but he'd leave that to Flash, Shayera and John for now, if Superman was really rouge, then he was the only one with the kryptonite to stop him.

Arriving at the womb, Batman quickly scanned the video feeds for the different rooms and levels of the watch tower. Batman didn't see Clark or Diana on any of the feeds… his heart sank at that realization. He'd have to try and see if maybe Clark was hiding in one of the private rooms without a camera…. He was about to start rewinding the recorded video to where Clark and Diana were in the meeting room with them and follow them room to room to see what happened, when something caught his eye. The feed from the infirmary. Fire the Brazilian was in there recovering from something that occurred last night and there was Vibe in his yellow and black gi unhooking the aqua marine haired girl from her IV and lifting her into his arms.

Batman narrowed his eyes as he went to contact Flash on the comlink. It suddenly hit him that anyone who was sane at this moment didn't have one anymore including him…. Gilt flooded his system, it was his technology, his program that had caused all of this. There had been a hole in his security and look what it was costing him. If anything happened it would be all his own fault! Clenching his fist, Bruce improvised as he got on the PA system, "Flash, Fire needs help in the infirmary. Hurry."

The message delivered, Batman set to find Clark and Diana on the conference room feed now.

….

Flash heard the announcement and let out a growl of frustration. Fire was someone he cared about, he'd gone on a couple of dates with the green fired girl, it's just he couldn't be everywhere at once…. At least each comlink that was destroyed meant there was another 'Good guy' to help balance the scales. Deciding that Fire took priority, especially if she was in the infirmary, he speed off.

…..

Shayera had made it back to her room. Her head was throbbing worse than before… she decided that while she was in her room she'd quickly grab a granola bar and swallow some aspirin and then join the fight. There were so many battles occurring on board all at once…. As she devoured her snack in 3 bites her mind was racing despite the congo drums that were playing behind her eyes… If Roulette's device had been destroyed, then who had one now? And what was the greater goal of all this?

…

Batman found the footage he wanted. He rewound it a bit before Clark left the room. Pausing the feed, Bruce took stock of where everyone was. Seeing Diana crumpled on the floor unconscious had his mouth going dry and his fist tightening. She had been fine before the meeting, so whatever occurred while he was out must have been some set of attacks to knock her out like that. He'd even known her to keep fighting ferociously while poisoned for a good amount of time. Part of him wanted to watch the entire fight, but there would be time for that later he scolded himself, now he just needed to find her and Clark… pressing play he watched as Superman rapidly stopped his attack on John, grabbed Diana and was out of the room in less than 3 seconds. Looking at the time stamp he started to check the other cameras after that time, following the red and blue blur until he reached the transporter room. Watching Bruce growled in outrage as Clark and Diana teleported somewhere, just as John entered. They were gone. A new mission in mind Batman rose to his feet. He needed to see what coordinates were imputed into the teleporter machine.

To be continued…..


	3. Chapter 3 Not Over Yet

Loss of Control

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Chapter 3 Not Over Yet

The watch tower battle had ended within an hour of its start. All the Justice League members were now comlink less and had gathered in the grand teleporter room as they wanted answers… A few members had been sent to the med bay as the fight had taken a toll on them and they needed to recover. Flash had opted to help in the medical room as he could assist everyone the fastest. It may have helped that Fire was also in the medical center, but no one chose to mention it.

Green Lantern stood above them all on the raised deck. He was going to be taking charge of the League as spokesperson in Superman's absence.

Shayera who was eternally grateful for the creation of aspirin was feeling better and using a tablet she started checking to see who was missing from their ranks.

Batman was far behind Green Lantern in the control booth for the teleporter. He was looking up the coordinates for the last teleportations.

John's strong commanding voice washed over the crowd demanding their silence with the confident authority he held in his statements. "Members of the Justice League, I know that many of you are confused by what has happened this morning. Let me bring you up to speed, there was an attack on our communication network that allowed each member to be controlled."

There were some panicked murmurs that started to raise from the group as Green Lantern raised his hand to silence them once more. "We are now aware of the problem and are going to be correcting it so this can NEVER happen again. That being said, we have no way to readily communicate at this time. Therefore we will need to revert back using to cell phones with our base on Earth. In this way- " Green Lantern froze mid-sentence as his own words hit him. In all the chaos, he had only secured the watch tower, many operatives were still on Earth…. No one had checked to see if they were freed as well or doing who knows what.

Shayera stopped taking roll to look up at John concerned when he just stopped talking. He was starting to lose his audience again… not sure what was wrong she decided to take the lead. Unfurling her wings she flew up to the balcony and landed beside John. Once again mentally thanking the wonders of modern medicine that had spared her pain where her wings had been bruised and beaten between yesterday and today's fights. "Please be sure to check in with me before you retire to your room for a rest, I'll be needing your current phone number and we need as many of you ready to go as possible, as some of our constituents are currently still under mind control and missing. Thank you for your help."

With that she went to fly back down to complete her job when John's hand reached out and swiftly took ahold of Shayera's, "Shayera," John whispered his voice hoarse from the impending impact this oversite may cause. Sweat beaded his brow as he quickly and quietly conveyed his worst fear, "We need to find out who wasn't on the watch tower when this started and try to locate them immediately."

John didn't need to finish as it suddenly dawned on Shayera too what John was saying. They needed to find out quickly and get teams down to Earth ASAP.

…..

Batman was having troubles of his own, what on Earth had Red Tornado been doing up here? He thought exasperated and quickly allowing his panic to shift to cool controlled anger. There were over 500 coordinates programed and used in the history bank from this morning. It was as if Red Tornado had been sending air in between real teleports. He looked at the time stamp from when Superman had gone and looked in the computer, it ordered them, but the software didn't save the time each one was used at…. So figuring out the correct one was going to be taxing. Bruce ground his teeth as he mentally added another update to the technology he needed to implement as soon as possible.

…

On Earth, Dinah was tired and still very horse from over using her canary call in the ring last night. It also didn't help that Huntress had kicked her in the trachea either… However, she was capable of handling things and thus here she was, facing off with Green Arrow. She had become aware of the situation when she got up that morning and went to get a cup of coffee at breakfast. As part of her routine she had turned on the news to listen to, just to stay current and have some white noise in the morning. However, the report made her pause and quickly caught her attention. It featured several Justice League members attacking random women in the streets. The piece of toast that had been part way in her mouth dropped as she stood there slack jawed wondering if she was so exhausted that she was seeing things or maybe still dreaming? Moving closer and pinching herself for good measure Dinah had to admit it was real and that she wasn't going to get to enjoy her coffee this morning.

Now, facing off with Olly, Dinah was trying to reason with him, but a smoke bomb arrow had been her answer. She was tired, cranky and hadn't had her coffee yet…. And he was shooting at her! Dinah let a dark smirk slide across her features, maybe it was time her boyfriend learned that there were some lines you don't cross… As she charged towards him ready to engage.

….

Huntress was having her own problems. She had been having breakfast with the Question at his place, trying to compete with his computer for his attention when he had suddenly froze mid-sentence and had taken a swing at her! Helena luckily was able to block as the Question was a skilled martial artist but in comparison to Helena herself more of a researcher than a fighter, but she had to wonder what had gotten into him? "What are you doing?" she had demanded a little annoyed.

His only response had been rather odd, "Taking you with me." And then he swiftly stood and attacked her again.

Huntress being more awake, narrowed her eyes as it occurred to her that perhaps Question was experiencing the same mind control she had witnessed last night… You would have thought the League would have fixed that last night! Sighing Helena had had the unpleasant task of taking down her boyfriend to remove the dysfunctional earpiece.

…..

Zatanna had ended up having her own show down with STRIP the white mecha and Stargirl. Zatanna had gotten the memo from Dinah last night about the comlink issue, but apparently these two had not… She had been on her way to a magic store when she saw the pair on the news attacking innocents. Thus, here she was fighting against two of her peers in the League….

…..

At Lex Co Metropolis, Lex looked at the members he had managed to acquire. Granted he had failed to take the entire League into his 'care' but he still had some useful pawns. Before him stood Superman still cradling the amazon princess in his arms. Captain Atom, and Metamorpho also stood attentively. He had hoped for more, but still he could work with this. First thing he needed to do was add his own ear pieces to the other ear of his slaves before swapping out the Justice League issue one for a second one of his. That was it would be harder to track them and twice as hard to free them from his control. He'd simply disable the Justice League ones as he might want to use them later on… it could come in handy.

Leaving the room for a moment to go get the required tech from the back storage room, Diana weakly opened her eyes. Her back still flaming with pain she looked around trying to get an idea of her surroundings. She wasn't sure where she was but it didn't look like the watch tower…. Trying to push herself up, she suddenly felt the things supporting her shift and clamp down hard to hold her still. Hissing with the sudden pressure on her injury she steeled herself and slammed her elbow into the restraint. There was a grunt as Wonder Woman found herself swiftly dropped to the floor. Scrambling as fast as she could she back peddled on all fours from the three Justice League members before her.

As she expected the three of them started to stalk towards her, she wasn't too sure the state of her back but she did know it was bad enough to put her at a severe disadvantage with the three warriors before her… finally reaching the wall of the room, Diana used it to help her get to her feet. It appeared that the other members weren't ready to start the attack until she did…. Diana had a hard choice to make, amazons didn't run away from any battle they fight and die with honor. But, if she ran now, she might be able to make it back to the watch tower for help…. If they were off the watch tower there was a high chance that no one knew where they were.

Unsure of her situation she needed to decide now. As much as she wanted to stay and try to free her friends, she was doing good just to stand at the moment… decision made Diana lifted her legs allowing herself to float into the air. Biting the inside of her cheek against her protesting spine, she quickly made for the door. Just as it opened, she crashed into one surprised and unhappy Lex Luther. A small whine escaped her mouth much to her chagrin but to her credit she managed to keep herself in the air without hitting the ground.

Lex also stood and looked at her assessingly, it was obvious she was not at her peak condition. "And where do you think you're going princess?" He asked mockingly with an eyebrow raised.

Diana bit her lip as she prepared herself, grabbing her lasso she bit hard enough to draw blood in order to muffle the protest her body gave to the movement and tried to rope Lex to make him move out of her way. Lex caught the rope easily as her throw was not up to par, and tugged hard enough to make Diana drop down near inches before the floor. Breathing hard, Diana tried to look for a way to escape…

Lex tisked and shock his head, "You can't possibly leave yet." He lightly scolded in fake tenderness. Squatting down to look her in the eye Lex grinned and opened his mouth to say something else when he suddenly felt her head come crashing into his own hard. "OW!" Lex yelped dropping to the floor himself a hand on his own head. Diana, not even bothering to worry about her lasso at the moment, tried once more to fly out the door. There were windows out there, if she could just get through the door and out the windows….

"Get her!" Lex roared starting to recover and stand back up. He was going to have a nasty goose egg there on his forehead where that little harlot had struck him!

What hope Diana had, fizzled out in a heartbeat as the door way she had almost made it through was suddenly sealed by Metamorpho. His body rapidly making it to the door way before her and hardening to steel. Going to try anyways, her progress was halted at she found herself once more in Superman's firm grip. Her arms pinned and stars starting to dance before her eyes as her back screamed in protest to the continued abuse.

It was like she was seeing things through someone else's eyes. As the stars cleared all she could see in was black and white and the words that were being said were muffled to her brain as if she was under water…

Lex had moved to stand before her. Making sure to keep far enough away not to get head-butted a second time Lex leaded forward just enough to rub it in her face that her escape attempt had failed. "Now, Now, there's no need to fight me on this Princess." He stated coolly studying her expression, he wanted to watch the last of her will leave her when he placed the earpieces inside her inner shells. "Soon you'll willingly do everything I say, when I say it." He flashed her a sadistic grin before holding up the tiny receivers. "This will calm you down." He promised biting back his laughter at his own cruel joke.

Diana was still starring at him, not quite understanding what he was telling her as her body had temporarily shut down that sense due to the throbbing in her spine, but seeing the look he gave her and the small white snail shell comlink she understood. Swinging her legs wildly she tried to get Clark to drop her. She was rewarded for her effort with a tighter squeeze from the mindless man behind her. Her hearing and vision correcting itself as it all slammed back into her with a gasp of agony. Though it didn't matter anymore as she felt the small piece of metal slide into place by her ear. The last thought she had before her world went dark was of a certain dark knight she would have paid money to have been able to see right now.

Lex finally let his laugh fill the chamber as he saw the light in her eyes flicker out with the placement of the gadget. Enjoying his small victory, he then frowned he'd have to let a doctor check his new pawn out. It wouldn't due for her to be easily taken down by injury… He'd call for a doctor he trusted, Dr. Stevil…

…..

Bruce was not one to throw tantrums, at least not outside of his own mind…. He needed a case, or an outlet for all of the rage he was feeling in this moment. He'd tried tracing the comlinks of the missing members only to find they were not able to be located, He was having the computer plot the 500 points of teleportation and so far it was basically 10 locates in each of the 50 United States of America… With all the time it had taken to wrap up the fight here and get the information he needed and analyzed he couldn't even guarantee that the missing members would still be at the teleport site if they found them…

Taking a couple of calming breaths he stared at the screen again, He needed to start sending operatives down to Earth to check out the drop offs and see if any had evidence that at least they HAD been there… Once he started that he decided he would take a few minutes and watch the tape from the meeting in full… he wanted to know what condition Clark and especially Diana were in when they left. Swallowing the next thought pained him more as he realized he also wanted to know how responsible he was for her apparent condition when she was taken….

To be continued….


	4. Chapter 4 Trying my Best

Loss of Control

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Authors note: I'm not a doctor so please forgive me if I got this wrong. I got my medical info from back-pain/guide/pain-management-back-pain#2

If anyone knows how to word this better feel free to let me know so I can correct it. ^_^

Chapter 4 Trying My Best

It sounded like thunder. _Thump Thump Thump Thump!_ Diana blinked her body still was reminding her that she was alive in the most painful way possible, but then again, she was surprised to be coherent once more. She seemed to be inside of a metal tube… She was strapped to a table inside it as it continued to roar around her. Feeling her lower back warm it was an odd sensation. Where on earth was she now? After what seemed like forever, the warmth dissipated and the sound stopped. All was still as the seconds ticked by. Diana held her breath. Next thing she knew, the table she was strapped two was sliding out. Quickly closing her eyes she played possum.

Dr. Stevil shook his head as he looked down at his patient. He checked the IV drip he had attached to the sleeping girl's arm as he took a syringe and injected it with something. Satisfied the doctor nodded to himself and left the room. He had finished the examination on Wonder Woman, and he didn't think Mr. Luthor was going to like what he had to say….. It had taken him doing an x-ray, CAT scan and finally an MRI but the girl's back was in sad shape. Leaving the girl to rest on the exam table he exited the room to talk with his boss.

Diana listened as the footsteps left the room. Once she was sure she was alone she experimentally tested the straps holding her down. Another wave of pain washed over her. Diana bit her lip this might be her only chance she thought eyeing a phone across the room. Pain or no pain she could at least get to the phone if she hurried. Nodding to herself she braced herself and pulled hard on the restraint with all her might.

Luthor was in a lab of his own with the three Justice Zombies nearby. He was glaring at the piece of Brainiac as he debated with the small part of the robot left in the corner of his mind. "I've tried everything!" He snapped throwing his wireless mouse across the room and not getting any satisfaction from it as the mouse smacked into the wall and split into 3 pieces.

"Luthor, you just got some new help, why not command Captain Atom to give it a try?"

Luthor calmed at the invisible robot's suggestion, "Of course you're right…." He took a few deep breaths and turned his attention to the silver Captain. "You, Atom! Come take a closer look at this specimen, find me the codes for Brainiac!"

Captain Atom said nothing as he moved forward to follow Luthor's wishes.

As Captain Atom started his work, Dr. Stevil came in. He was a midsized man, with short brown hair that looked like a straight mop head was just set on top of him. It was flat and made his head look a bit too small for his form. A small mustache hung above his nose that twitched with his nervous movements. The Long white lab coat whispered as he walked briskly to his boss.

"Mr. Luthor, I completed my examination of Wonder Woman." he reported a bit robotically hoping that Luthor wouldn't shoot the messenger.

Luthor turned to look at Stevil and started to get impatient when the man didn't speak. "AND!" He snapped crossing his arms.

"Oh- oh!" Dr. Stevil almost dropped his clip board and he almost caught it but then lost his grip and had to snatch it from the air again to prevent it from clattering to the floor. "Well, Mr. Luthor – Sir-… Wonder Woman sustained some serious back injuries…"

Dr. Stevil paused to gage Luthor's response but seeing the heated, left eye twitching look Lex was giving him for pausing, he quickly continued, "She has sustained both Spondylolthesis and Radiculopathy back injuries."

Lex swung his arms out and snapped at the doctor, "In English?"

"Oh right!" Dr. Stevil was having a hard time answering Lex in a timely manner as he was getting more and more perturbed by Lex's aggression. "Well, it-it appears that some of her vertebra are broken s-sir, and that s-some of the r-r-ruptured discs have clamped down on her never r-roots." He swallowed tugging at the collar of his blue button up shirt that was partially visible under his coat.

"So." He glared having tried to calm down a bit but his temper was already starting to boil again…

"Well, she'll need p-p-pain killers and possibly physical therapy…. If it doesn't improve then she m-m-migh-"

"JUST SPIT IT OUT!" Lex screamed slamming his fist on a nearby table leaving the room to feel eerily quiet in its wake.

"Surgery." The Doctor squeaked.

Lex stroked his chin thoughtfully, turning to stride across the room and back again. "I see, but we aren't talking about a typical human here… A few days on pain killers might perk her up a bit."

The doctor nodded trying to hide the deep breaths he was taking to calm his racing heart. "Though with the nerve damage you may find that she will experience a loss of strength in effected areas…"

Lex narrowed his eyes, that could be a problem, if he wanted her to fight with her friends weakness could not be tolerated. "Alright." Lex said calmly like he had never lost his temper at all. We'll leave her on bed rest and pain meds for a few days then test her out to see if more invasive procedures are needed….

Dr. Stevil nodded glad it appeared he was almost done with Lex's temper.

"One more thing Doctor," Lex drawled a small concern tingling at the edge of his mind, but no… the doctor wouldn't be that dumb… "What kind of tests did you run on her to find out this information?"

Dr. Stevil took a breath and smiled he'd been very through, "X-rays, CAT scan and an MRI." He pronounced proudly.

A dark glint lit in Lex's black eyes, as his eyebrows slid downward dangerously. "And you sedated her?" he asked carefully like a cat playing with its food.

Dr. Stevil was trying to figure out why it was important to his boss. "She was so out of it the whole time, I didn't think too…" He admitted.

Lex narrowed his eyes further as he started to lean towards the good doctor, "You did remove her earbuds before the MRI and replace them at least…Right?"

Dr. Stevil looked at Lex sweating bullets, "They weren't ear plugs?" He asked feeling his heart rate accelerating.

"No."

"No…. I-I didn't-" The doctor never finished the statement before Lex pounced grabbing the Doctor by the lapels and yanking him towards his face, "YOU IDIOT! AND YOU LEFT HER ALONE LIKE THAT?!" Tossing the Doctor across the room Lex raced down the hall ways to the Doctor's lab where his captive had regained her free will…. Most likely, the magnates would have shorted out the earpieces…..

Diana winced and took several deep breaths. She had shakily managed to break her bonds and she had just grabbed the IV and hobbled over to the phone. Not even wasting the effort to glance over her shoulder she dialed the number she knew would get her some help…

Three rings. Her heart hammered with adrenaline.

The rings stopped, "Hello, Wayne residence. May I ask who is calling?" A friendly British accent filled the phone.

"Alfred!" she breathed with relief. "It's Diana! I'm somewhere with Lex, he's trying to control me like the others, but I got hurt… and I came out of it…."

Alfred was listening as he pressed a secret button on the side that was wired to the bat cave that would start tracing the call. "Shall I try to connect you to Master Bruce?" Alfred asked already dialing Bruce's cell phone number.

"Please." She begged grateful that she was getting word out…. A couple of rings started on the line.

Diana held the phone to her ear like a treasured life line. She was leaning on the table to help her remain standing as she awaited the voice she dreamed of so many nights. She hated playing damsel in distress but taking on 4 justice league core members by herself for 25 minutes in a life or death match, which started with a surprise attack, resulting in an injury, left her feeling pretty proud of herself.

"Yes?" His gruff tone came on the line.

"Batman!" she whispered urgently.

Bruce did a double take on his phone, "Princess! Where are you?" he clenched his fist trying to keep himself from wasting this time by over loading her with questions.

"I'm in some kind of doctor's office. Lex is here he has Superman, Captain Atom and Metamorpho here too."

Bruce closed his eyes savoring the sound of her voice and being able to trace this call he was already setting the transporter up to take him to the bat cave where he'd get the trace and go get her.

"How are you?" He asked the next question trying to hide the worry that was ravaging his mind.

"I think I'm going to need to rest a while, I-" there was a click and then the call ended.

Bruce narrowed his eyes. She'd been caught. He'd have to hurry. Platform ready for transport, Bruce looked over at Shayera that was trying to update phone numbers in the database. "Shayera, tell Green Lantern I may have found our missing team and I'll want back up on this one. Lex is involved."

Shayera looked at him in surprise as she stood quickly to try and find out more but Bruce had already turned on the teleporter and sent himself home. "I'm coming Diana… And if he hurt you…." His eyes narrowed in cold promise.

Diana didn't wait as she turned towards Lex and tried to hit him. Lex caught her hand and then gave her a dark look as he dropped the phone but took his now free hand and pressed it against her back hard.

A hiss that rapidly turned into a scream escaped Diana's lips. She took several deep breaths as she eyed Lex coldly. She hated that she was this incapacitated but if she had to fight she was sure she could do some damage… Lex reached up and removed one of the ear pieces tossing behind him like it had offended him. "Well, well, since you keep insisting on going home, I think I'll help arrange it for you. However…" Lex turned calculating eyes to look back over at the Doctor who was white as a sheet.

Wonder Woman had been on the phone… How bad was Lex going to kill him for this. Dr. Stevil trembled at the thought.

"Doctor, what did you say she might require again?" Lex asked waiting half a beat before answering himself, "Surgery?" His smile turning darker as he looked at the weakened hero before him, "I guess we should get you prepped then."

Diana swallowed the saliva in her throat, it didn't matter how bad it hurt, if she didn't fight now, she might not get to ever again.

To be continued….


	5. Chapter 5 Primrose Path

Loss of Control

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Chapter 5 Primrose Path

Flash sat back with his feet on the table examining his finger nails in the medical center. He had patched up and looked after each and everyone in the medical ward and now was waiting for what to do next…. Of course, that's if the patients agreed with him on that front. A fully wrapped "mummy" came leaping down the aisle way on all fours. Creeper mummy stopped in front of Flash and looked at him. "While fun, this isn't really my style." He whined at the red speedster.

Wally sighed, "I asked you where it hurt, and you said everywhere! So I bandaged you everywhere." He said with a shrug.

Creeper eyed Flash tilting his head to the side, before an idea struck, "I'll just return these to you then." He said with a big crazed grin.

Moments later the fastest man alive was trying to dig his way out of the pile of bandages that had been dumped on top of him. Flash sighed as he finished rolling the bandages back up. Looking over he could see Fire resting still. He did hope she felt better soon….

In one of the meeting rooms, Green Lantern was talking privately to Vixen. Mari put a hand on his shoulder, "Quit beating yourself up John, you handled the situation as best as you could-"

Shifting his shoulder away from her touch, Green Lantern lowered his gaze from the girl before him. "Yeah, I only forgot about the operatives on Earth and lost four of our members…. I'm doing great."

"The situation on Earth wasn't as bad as we thought. Have some faith in the members!" Mari snapped to get his eyes back on her, seeing his emerald gaze lock with hers once more, Vixen let a smile return to her features, "Besides," she continued in a softer purr, her arms snaking around John's neck her face moving closer, "I'd like to see anybody else do better…"

The couple's lips were just about to meet…

Shayera slammed open the door with her entrance, interrupting the pair.

John narrowed his eyes growling as he slipped out of Vixen's arms taking a step towards the Thanogarian, "Of all the petty-"

"Batman may have found Wonder Woman and the others." She cut in briskly. Her fist clenched at her side. She was putting her outrage at John's instant assumption that she would just interrupt them because of her desire to have him back to the side for the moment…. If she would have wished to stop this, she wouldn't disuse it as an important message she'd just challenge Mari to a fight! Or bash her mace against John's swelled and thick skull a few times….

John stopped his face softening. "Did he say where he was going?" he asked, suddenly all business.

"He left first, but he must be worried." Shayera stated with a frown.

"Why is that?" John inquired eyebrow raised.

"Because he _asked_ for back up."

Taking three deep breaths, Diana steadied herself. She rarely had to experience being unable to handle a battle as she was a fast healer and while she worked well alone, she also always had good allies that could help out when she needed them most. This time was different, she had taken a series of bad hits, that compounded the problems created by the initial injury and every time her body started to work its wonders, she had to agitate it or continue to injure the affected area, there was no rest time to let herself recover… She had managed to contact Batman, but she wasn't sure Bruce would arrive in time to help…. Not with what Lex was saying now. Taking those three breaths she tossed up a prayer to her gods for strength and to help her not to feel her injury so she could escape. Superman and the others she would come back for with help… in her current situation she was no help to them…

Lex turned to Dr. Stevil not even bothering to keep an eye on the amazon. Lex was satisfied that he had given her enough mental torment to appease his temper and well, she didn't look like she was in the position to do much…. But he'd have to hurry if he wanted to get somethings in place before whomever the princess had called came to try and pick her up. "Sedate her." Lex commanded. As he took a step forward to leave the room, he was unprepared for the IV stand that swung at him and swept his feet out from underneath him.

Diana had forced herself to her feet and was using the nearest item to her as a weapon, her IV stand. Letting a cry of pain turn into a battle cry she raised the stand once more now that Lex was down and swung it at Lex's abdomen. Lex wide eyed, rolled to the side just in time to miss the impact. Diana lifted and taking a step forward did a sweep with the pole above Lex's form slightly, anticipating that he would be getting up.

Lex had to admit that he didn't think she was capable of what she was showing now… If it hadn't hurt and wasn't such bad timing he'd be impressed. Continuing to roll back to try and get enough distance from the amazon to get up he pinned the doctor with a glare.

Dr. Stevil stood still as a statue in shock as well. He mentally wondered if the pain killer he had injected into the IV before he left was what was currently enabling her to do this… Seeing Lex's glare he understood… It was scary but Diana seemed so focused on Lex, perhaps he could sneak up on her without her notice and live?

Diana wasn't as fast in following Lex as she would typically be, she was gritting her teeth through the pain, fueled by the thought that if she went down, she probably wasn't getting back up… She took another swing at Lex, who had finally made it to the cot in the room.

Using the cot to his advantage Lex used it as a barrier between him and his captive finally raising to stand again. Feeling movement behind her, Wonder Woman twisted at the waist and swung around to take on her assailant. Moving forward was one thing as she was allowing adrenaline to help her keep moving, the twist, caused a fresh wave of agony to shoot up her back and into her right arm. Her legs shaking she dropped down to a knee the IV stand clattering on the floor dropped in the moment.

She felt hands on her, her mind not fully ready to comprehend what was going on yet, she lashed out with her arm, tying to strike the man that was touching her.

Dr. Stevil had placed a firm hand on her shoulder and was about to administer a sensitive when she took a swing at him! He jumped back with a girlish shriek, dropping the syringe in the process.

Lex took a spare earpiece out of his pocket and tackled the problem to the floor hard.

Wincing Diana felt her mind shut down everything but the white hot flash of siring pain that shot through her from the impact. She wasn't even sure if she screamed or whimpered or if she had just gasped… Though her sentient thoughts soon stopped as Lex got off of her, his control firmly replaced in her ear.

Lex then hit a button in his own ear piece, "Talia, I need you here now." Turning back to Dr. Stevil Lex shot a command at the doctor, "Prep her for surgery," he tossed the doctor a small receiver, "put it in her head permanently. "

Dr. Stevil looked at the tiny receiver and shakily looked up, "But sir wouldn't her friends just find it and remove it later?"

Lex sneered, "True, but then they will stop looking. They'll never guess to look anywhere else…"

The Doctor looked at the receiver again and then at Lex's departing figure. He had to wonder, what else was he going to have done to her?

Batman had arrived in the bat cave. He swiftly strode to the bat computer and started pressing buttons to access the information he required.

"Aww, Master Bruce," Alfred's voice echoed off the cave walls as the older butler ascended down the staircase. "Checking your phone messages I see."

"Great work tracing the call Alfred." He commended his lifelong father figure and friend.

"Did it work?" Alfred inquired leaning forward to try and see for himself.

Bruce frowned when he got the coordinates and referenced them to the ones from the ship. "She seems to be in Metropolis, in an office building. It's a…" he trailed off looking up information about the building, "time share lab." Thus many big corporations will rent the facilities for special projects to utilize the equipment. It was last rented out to a "Roth Lexington…"

Does it appear to be where she's actually at?"

Batman nodded turning and in a bit of a rush to get to Diana skipped the stairs by firing his grappling hook by the Batplane. He hated that every minute he wasn't there yet, it put Diana in more danger. Or worse they might already be relocating…. But he needed to at least have looked at the location and be sure it wasn't a wild goose chase that would keep him from her…

Seated in his personal aircraft he quickly flicked the switches and watched as the cave parted for him to take off. I'm coming Diana…

Moments after takeoff, the phone to the Batplane started ringing, Bruce hit the button to answer it.

"Where are you headed?" Green Lantern's voice came over the speaker. "I've got back up ready I just need the coordinates to send them.

Batman nodded, "It's a time share lab in Metropolis, 40.7128 degrees North and 74.0059 degrees West."

"How'd you find them anyway?" John asked eyebrow raised.

"Diana called me." He said simply.

John's mouth tightened and his shoulders took on a more ridged stance, "Was she ok?"

"She was herself, but we were interrupted." Came the detached reply.

John frowned noting the lack of emotion in Batman's voice for what it was, Bruce was worried too. "We'll meet you there."

John hung up the satellite phone and turned to Shayera and Vixen, "We're going in, get Flash, and Captain Marvel.

Both girls raised an eyebrow and shared a look. Captain Marvel was coming, it must be to help out if Superman was still… but giving a quick nod Shayera called out, "I'll get Flash."

Vixen nodded, "I'll grab Captain Marvel."

Lex smiled at Tala when she arrived, "Ahh Tala right on time." He said charmingly offering her his arm.

"Lex, Baby, you know I'll always be here for you." She replied slipping her arm in his offered one her long her slender black dress whispering with her movements, "So tell me, what do you need? I'll do anything I can for you, Baby."

Lex mentally cringed, talking with Tala was a chore, but he needed her talents at the moment so he'd have to grin and bear it, for now.

Lex escorted her to an office type room as he sat down across from her folding his hands in front of his mouth thoughtfully to hide the dark grin that was fighting to break out. I have a problem my dear, I have four Justice League members under my control, but it's too easy to release them from said control. If only there was some way to ensure it…" He trailed dropping his left hand and sliding the right one to rest on the side of his head as if stressing.

Tala completely taken in leaned forward concern tinting her words, "No worries Baby, you've got me! I'm certain one of my spells may be able to help."

Lex looked up and smiled, "Of course. Why hadn't I thought of that?" He questioned hoping it didn't sound too sarcastic. Pulling out a paper from the desk in front of him he handed it to the lavender haired sucker – I mean witch across from him. "There is a spell I ran across that may help. Go test it on our guest in the other room."

Tala looked at the spell in question, wondering when Lex would have had time to procure such a spell. It was rather simple really. She frowned wondering what Lex would want her to connect the spell to? It needed to be anchored to the victim in some way.

Following Lex's order she was surprised to find Wonder Woman in a lab with a doctor all scrubbed up and looked to be ready to start cutting… deciding that perhaps an item she normally carries or wears would be best… She smiled as she noted the tiara that had been moved to the side. Perhaps this was the perfect item to enchant….

To be continued….


	6. Chapter 6 Got Ya

Loss of Control

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Chapter 6 Got Ya

Tala looked at the tiara satisfied. She had taken it and cast the spell. It was an easy cast, especially since Luthor already had all the necessary ingredients…. Though Tala frowned, how could a spell like this be so simple? It must not be very strong or effective if it's so easily cast…

Shrugging, she brought the tiara into the hallway where the labs windows were Lex was watching the doctor's room and the proceedings inside.

Tala held out the Tiara in front of him, "Its done darling." She said with a smile.

Lex took the golden crown and smiled. "Excellent."

"Though Lex, Baby, I don't understand, this spell can't be too strong…" She carefully laid out her concerns, "I know you're in a hurry but-"

"No, this spell will do exactly what is needed…" Lex brushed Tala's words off still watching the room before him.

"At most you'll be able to give her ideas with this, but she can easily chose not to obey…" Tala stated a bit stronger as she walked in front of Lex blocking his view arms crossed. "Also, I thought this was a last minute plan… how are you so prepared?"

Lex growled a bit, there was so much Tala didn't know… and right now he really didn't want to explain it. "If you are done," he snapped then there are three more Justice League members for you to enchant. "

She raised a hand to his cheek, "But Baby, I can find you a better spell, no need to continue wasting time on this-"

Lex grabbed a hold of her arm hard and started to squeeze pulling it off his cheek, "I said go do the enchantment. Quit. Questioning. ME." He bit tightening his grip with each punctuated word, before tossing Tala to the floor away from him.

Rubbing her abused wrist, Tala quietly collected herself and tossing another hurt look back at Lex went through the doors.

Tala looked at the three Justice League members before her. It would serve him right if she messed up the spell a bit… She smirked a bit, yes, she could change a word or two to have a different effect….

Lex smiled at the tiara, pressing a button outside the medical room, Lex called in, "Stevil, is the patient still awake?"

Dr. Stevil, had his baby blue mask already on the lower portion of his face, turned and tried to keep calm, Lex was just such a violently angry man… "Yes, I just shaved her hair to prepare her… I was just about to put her under."

Lex smiled, "Take a quick break, I need a word with the Amazon."

The doctor quickly nodded and went to the door where Lex was ready to enter. "When should I be back?" He asked quickly, not wanting to slight the tycoon.

"I only need a few minutes." Lex sighed wondering where all the good help was these days, "Be back by then."

Nodding and planning on going nowhere the doctor exited and stood looking at the one way mirror window into the room as Lex had moments before.

Lex approached Wonder Woman, she was strapped down to the table and was laying obediently still half of her hair was shaved off and lay on the floor of the medical room.

Lex looked at the female, "Now Princess, I have something I need you to do for me…"

Lex smirked Tala had only been half right, if the spell was unfinished then it was waste of time, easily overcome and ignored, but when the very last step was added to the mix, it was a very powerful spell indeed…. He'd finish the spell off with the Amazon now before the doctor continued….

Batman reached the time share labs. There were seven different buildings in the lot each with 5 stories. 3 above ground and 2 below ground. Now that he was here, Bruce needed to pinpoint which building Diana had been in… taking a mini GPS that was bat shaped out of his utility belt he placed the batplane on auto pilot and lept out of the plane landing on the roof of the nearest building. It wasn't the one he landed on that she had phoned from…. Walking the perimeter of the roof he watched the screen carefully. Not the buildings to the South…. Nor to the East…. Not North…. There was two buildings to the West that were possible. Pocketing the batgps he took a running start the black cape billowing out around his fit form as he leapt through the air and tumbled into a crouched position on the next building. As he reached back into his belt for the GPS, Bruce had to shake off the thought that Clark would show up demanding to know why he was in in his city… Clark was in need of saving this round too… Bruce saw the lock on the location matched his current building, relived he re-pocketed the device and secured a cable to the roof by tying it around some of the air conditioning apparatus up there. Then stealthily, Batman started to hold on to the cable and drop down the side of the building one jump at a time.

Once on the 2nd floor, Bruce found an office that didn't seem to be in use. Taking out a diamond tipped campus and unfolding it to be about 2 foot radius, Batman cut out a 4 foot diameter circle. Catching the glass before it fell, Batman slipped inside silently. Refolding and putting the window cutter away. Satisfied that no one knew of his presence yet, Batman pressed on his Bluetooth, "Call Watch Tower."

Flash was the one to answer the phone, "Hey this is your friendly neighborhood heroes at the watch tower, what can I do you for?"

Bruce bit back his annoyance at Wally's carefree attitude, He could yell at him later once the captives were returned and safe… "Teleport to my current location."

"On it!" Flash eagerly replied.

Bruce took a breath to calm his nerves, it was just who Wally was, it was just annoying to hear such enthusiasm when he was so worried….

Moments later Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Captain Marvel and Flash appeared in the room with Batman having teleported to the scene.

Green Lantern seeing Batman, walked towards the dark Caped Crusader. "What do we know so far?" He asked getting to business, his arms crossed and the air around him glowing a light green ready for action.

Batman ignored John for the moment in favor of getting the most information possible in the shortest amount of time. "Flash, run around quick and see what you can find."

Wally smiled and nodded, before taking off in a red blur leaving a momentary trail of yellow lightning in his path.

Satisfied, Batman turned his attention back to Green Lantern his cape hanging around him hiding everything but his head, "We'll know soon enough."

Captain Marvel looked at Hawkgirl, "So does that mean he had nothin'?" He asked with a small smirk finding it almost funny that the great detective had no further information….

Shayera just shook her head, if Batman had heard the comment he was choosing to ignore it.

Flash was as close as he could be to flying. Zipping past rooms, his mind rapidly taking in the visual information around him keeping in time with his speed _. Desk, books, guards, lab with spectrometer, MRI, CAT scanner, some kind of laser, books, empty, empty, empty, more guards, nothing, nothing, locked door, doctor…. Seems to be…. Diana!_

Slamming his feet down and going to enter the room, he found it too locked. He knew he was supposed to report back to the others but he didn't like the looks of what was happening in that room… The doctor inside was outfitted in the aqua marine blue scrubs of surgeons. A large selection on scalpels, clamps and something that looked suspiciously like a drill of some kind were laid out on the medical tool table beside him… Some already had a coating of sticky red liquid on them. Blood! Diana's blood?! Thankfully the drill was still clean. The patient was wearing an all too familiar pair of red boots and red, blue and gold costume…. Before anything else could happen, he was going to take care of it now himself!

Vibrating at a frequency consistent with the door, Wally phased through the locked obstacle his molecules easily siding through. Now inside the medical room, Wally zoomed up to the doctor and grabbed a hold of him pulling him back.

The surgeon let out a started shout, having been so focused on the task before him, Stevil had not been ready for the interruption.

Flash looked at the doctor, and then chanced a look at Diana… Frowning at the condition he found his friend it, Flash turned on the doctor, eyes narrowed to slits, and hand clenched. Wally could feel his form vibrating with rage. His arms were starting to blur from sight with the anger that coursed through his body. The very blood in his veins was rushing and boiling. Diana was like a sister to him and to see her in this condition…. If anyone who knew a thing about speedsters were to see him at this moment they could easily misinterpret Wally's current intent. All the vibrating his arms were doing was usually a sign of death… When a speedster wanted to kill another being. It was so easy… just to vibrate at the right frequency as he had done with the door, slip his hand through a person 's chest and then stop vibrating once he reached the heart, before vibrating once more to pull his appendage back out, the victim would be dead…. He'd seen the Reverse Flash do this before… but that wasn't what he intended! Wally wasn't a killer… Seeing Diana laying there head cut open, helpless… she was always so strong… invincible… Flash surprised himself as he came to the sudden realization that he was growling as he sorted out how best to help his friend…

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Her?" Wally forced the words out his eyes locking with the frightened ones before him.

Dr. Stevil was thinking he was in the wrong business, Luthor was scary, the Justice League he had thought would be intimidating but the fury pooling off of the red force before him made him want to drop to his knees and beg for mercy. "I-I wasn't going to hurt her!" he pleaded hoping to pacify the Scarlet Speedster.

"So what were you doing?!" Wally roared his voice echoing and amplifying as his vocal cords joined the hum of outraged wrath in his body.

The doctor wondered if he'd live though this… "I was…" he gulped audibly, "only going to attach a small thing to her mind… I swear!" He rushed and then dropped to the floor looking up at the dark deity. Mentally Stevil was doing several hail Marys in preparation for his possible death at this man's hands….

"SHOW ME!" Wally was not liking what he was hearing, what was he planning on 'attaching' to her?

Stevil shakily jumped up to his feet and rapidly got the receiver in his gloved hand, holding it out to the still vibrating hero. "It's r-right here…"

Taking the small trinket, Wally glared at the doctor, there were two more matters of business, "What have you done so far?" he asked still moving dangerously fast, but his mood starting to calm a bit.

"I just cut her open – see I didn't even get to the drill yet…" Looking at the drill as if it were the vilest pile of excrement in the gutter of society, Wally's hand shot out and moved swiftly through the molecules pausing for a fraction of a second and then restoring its speed to return to its master's side, Flash watched with little accomplishment as the drill exploded.

Dr. Stevil opened his mouth wide and raising his hands up dropped the remnants of the tool. He let out several sounds that were reminiscent of a panicked monkey cry as heat started to dance across his chin. Feeling things heating up, the Doctor frantically started to pat the small flame from his beard.

"Sew her up now." Flash ordered, not caring that the man before him had just extinguished the beginnings of a flame on his face.

Nodding, the doctor immediately started to patch up the girl before him.

To be continued….


	7. Chapter 7 Fireworls

Loss of Control

Chapter 7- Fireworks

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.

Author's note: Hey guys, Happy 4th of July! I'm down visiting with family and friends for a few days. Thus the sudden "no posts." I'll be back on Thursday. However here is a mini chapter to help tide you all over and to celebrate the holiday!

Shayera looked over at Green Lantern and frowned. Flash had been scouting too long... at this rate perhaps the speedster was captured himself. Cringing, Hawkgirl approached her former boyfriend.

Vixen stood beside Green Lantern, and had a hand on John's arm casually , "Are you ready?" She softly checked with her beloved. Her chocolate pools diving into his storming luminescent green ones.

"Just waiting for Flash to give us the lay of the land." He said with an irritated shrug. "Though, where is he anyways? You'd think the fastest man alive would be back by now."

Vixen opened her mouth to speak when Shayera cut in, "I agree. I think we should consider him missing by now and go look for him and the others."

There was a silence that washed over the group as each member weighed the options. Batman was the first to break the silence, "Give him three more minutes, if he's not back by then we'll go. "

Shayera frowned, "But what if he's-"

"Then we'll find out after three minutes. " the Dark Knight firmly stated, the look he leveled at the entire group left no sane person room for argument.

Captain Marvel watched all of this with a shake of his head, the way these heros acted… Billy had gotten over his idol worship of these guys long ago when he started to see the flaws in them. He hand been so happy to receive the power he had and be recognized as a hero by them, but they weren't without their downfalls and petty squabbles. Looking off down the corridor that Wally had raced off in earlier, Billy wondered if he should just slip off to go see what he could find on his own… Annoyed or not the point was to rescue their missing allies. Time was wasting away.. Nodding to himself Captain Marvel slipped off his waist length white cape waving silently with his departure.

Flash watched the doctor with a careful eye as he stitched the cut on her head shut once more. His rapid eye and mental capacity watching for the slightest twitch of dishonestly… Flash had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that this was too easy… He was rather jumpy waiting for the other shoe to drop. Lex wasn't a meta human like him and many of the others, but he was a genius… the extent of Lex's prior planning and traps more than made up for the human's lack of ability. So the fact that he could get into the room and be there for so long spoke to one of two ideas, one Lex was preparing to launch an all out attack, or saving Diana herself was the trap. Either way, it wouldn't be good.

As if on cue, the door to the Lab exploded in with a BANG! The door left a thin trail of smoke as it flew across the room and landed with an impressive crash right into the MRI machine. The door and machine now a mess of twisted and bent metal.

Wally snapped his full attention to see whow was coming in, but only got a good look at a fist before it slammed into his head right between the eyes.

The red clad hero slammed into a neighboring wall. Several chunks of the structure cracked and fell crumbling onto Flash's form as he rapidly regained his footing and stood. Feeling a whoosh of air, Wally didn't take time to see, he just reacted. Leaning far backward, Flash felt relieved as he felt the tell tale gust of movement from a strike he had narrowly missed, following through with the movement, when Wally's hands touched the floor he pushed off with his feet and felt them solidly connected to something solid as he completed his backflip.

Dr. Stevil had quickly ducked under the cot his breathing coming out louder to his own ears than it really was. Heart pounding, the doctor rested a hand on one leg of the bed and was watching fearfully as the alien and metahuman fought it out.

Not sure who or what he was fighting yet, Wally zipped away from the assailant to get a second of breathing room and to see what he was dealing with. Wally frowned when he finally saw who he was dealing with, "Superman…" he gasped. He knew Clark was around, but he didn't expect for the Man of Steel to just attack and ask questions later. Of course, he is not in his right mind Wally reasoned.

Superman shook off the earlier kick and was quick to rush in a blur after Flash. Wally let out a breath and then started his 'dance' with Superman, he just had to think it was too easy!

Bruce clenched his hand as he stood up, "Times up." He announced. Bruce had really tried to be patient as Flash could get a good lay of the land without showing up on security cameras, but it had been too long. "We're going in."

Shayera grinned, lifting her mace from her waist to her shoulder, "It's about time!"

John gave a nod his entire form encasing in its green glow, ready for combat.

Vixen also nodded her fingers of her left hand reaching up to lightly trace the gem on her neck, the key to her powers. "Then let's be off." She silkily stated.

Batman turned and frowned, irritation flooding his system, balling his hands into fists, "Where's Cap-" He started to ask snappily when an explosion shot off in the room.

All the current occupants were tossed to the side with the exception of Green Lantern who was shielded.

John cried out seeing his colleagues flung to the sides due to the force of the blast. "No!"

Turning to look at the door, there stood Captain Atom, and Metamorpho.


	8. Chapter 8 Battle

Loss of Control 

Chapter 8 Battles

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's Note: Sorry this took longer than I intended to get out, trying to move and keep up with so many characters in so many separate fights! Ahhhhhh. Also this took a lot of research to be sure I was doing the character's justice in their battles. Thank you for your patience, I hope it was worth the delay! Also I know a lot of you are looking forward to the pairings, they're coming but in time. ^_^ build up is necessary. Enjoy!

Wally flew back and hit the wall a third time. The red head was sure that he was going to have several places that were black and blue later. Luckily as he was moving about so quickly it dampened the strength of the impacts. Of course, Superman had taken a fair share of hits as well, but he shrugged them off as if they were flies. It was going to take a really powerful hit to hinder him...

Wally frowned, he needed to get access to Superman's ears. Rushing around the room Wally was winding up for a rather powerful strike. Once, twice, three times the red blur circled the room.

Superman was standing in the center watching when his eyes lit up with a spark of red hot lava before the trail of burning death started following Wally in his rush around the room hot on his heels.

Flash's mind worked quickly, if he completely circled the room like this, Diana and the quack doctor might get hit… decision made, Flash turned to the center and stopped short letting the yellow electricity pass over his arm and slam into the red and blue brain washed hero. Superman let out a cry as the energy coursed through his body the energy from his eyes stopping quickly. Clark convulsed arms out in a temporary surrender as the power sent charges up and down his spine and throughout his system rendering one of the most powerful men of all time momentary helpless.

Hope sparked in Flash's brain, rushing forward Wally snatched the comlink from Clark's right ear. Skidding to a stop, feet turned sideways, and arms out to provide balance, Wally crushed the tiny device and turned hopeful eyes to the slightly smoking Superman who was standing shoulders hunched, head lowered and arms dangling down by his sides in silence.

Wally could hear his own heartbeat rocket in anticipation, did he do it? Did he free Clark?

What took only seconds felt like years passing, as Superman slowly lifted his head up to look at the Flash. A smirk had slid across the Man of Steel's face – wait a smirk? Then with a burst of red siring pain slammed into the Flash's left arm. With a scream of surprised pain Wally forced his feet into action, zig zagging away from the lethal red beams. "Superman? Wha-" Wally started hurt and disorientated that destroying the comlink had failed, his right hand covering the burn on his left forearm protectively, that's when Wally got a look at Clark's left ear. "You've got to be kidding me…" Wally muttered bitterly.

Dashing out of Clark's way Flash managed to miss the running tackle aimed for him, not one to miss a chance, Wally grabbed a hold of Superman's red cape and rapidly flipped it over his friend's head. He managed to get the first comlink, Wally just had to set up a similar situation where he could get the second one…

Metamorpho stood in the door way his hand glowing with fire, beside him Captain Atom was lowering the hand that had fired the pervious blast, his hands glowing yellow with atomic energy. The pair stepped into the room, surveying the damage that their sneak attack had wrought.

A green laser shot from John's ring and started to tear up the ground as it raced towards the pair.

Metamorpho seeing the oncoming attack shifted his form into a gaseous state and flew to the right, out of the way, heading towards the nearest recovering hero by him. Captain Atom lifted his feet from the floor and flew to the left also towards the nearest target.

Shayera was rubbing her head as she got up, the explosion had tossed her into a wall momentarily stunning her. Now she was rubbing her temples trying to get the stars to leave her vision. She knew that a battle was starting and determined to not let her injuries slow her down Shayera was trying to get herself back in condition to fight. Unfortunately, she was just getting her vision to clear when Metamorpho reached her, the gas he had transformed into filling her lungs as she coughed struggling to breathe. Picking up her mace she started to violently swing it sight unseen.

Vixen was already pulling herself up, her head bleeding from the small gash it suffered in the blast. It wasn't bad, but any head lacerations tended to bleed like crazy just to spite the recipient. Touching her necklace, she used the healing properties of a lizard to aide in her speedy recovery. She barely had time to register the burst of atomic energy that was now heading her way, accompanied by the silvery Captain Atom.

John looked on as he rapidly realized that his targets had fled… It would be so much easier if their opponents would be too out of it to use their combat knowledge and experiences to combat them…. It made freeing their teammates so much more difficult. Seeing the pair split up John watched in horror as the two went after Shayera and Vixen. There was no time to think, no time to weigh options John reacted. His ring turning into a fan, he pointed it at Shayera and blew Metamorpho's gas form away from the choking Thanagarian.

Batman had also taken a moment to get up and shake off the disorientating force of the blast. Seeing that Vixen was getting company, Bruce threw a batarang at the Captain.

Captain Atom, saw the sharpened blade heading in his direction and quickly altered his path to avoid the projectile, if his suit got torn, it would be an issue… This alteration to the Captain's path gave Vixen time to touch her necklace again and call upon the power of an elephant. Running towards the flying Captain, he was met with more strength than he was anticipating and was easily flipped over Vixen's shoulder and slammed to the floor. Vixen leapt up and was about to slam her elbow into her opponent, when a concentrated shot of hot yellow energy slammed into her form midair tossing her back several feet. Vixen went with it tumbling when she hit the floor and rolled to her feet her side stinging but manageable.

Batman was already moving in, As Captain Atom started to get to his feet, he was assaulted by several batarangs that swiftly stuck into the ground in a circle around him and beeping rapidly, the red lights flashing progressively faster, exploded around him.

Captain Atom monotonely taunted, "I am energy. You think an explosion can hurt me?"

Smoke surrounded him, Batman took the opportunity to rush into the fray and armed with a batarang in hand lashed out at the Atomic man, "No, I think they make a great distraction!"

Vixen seeing the opening, touched her necklace once more and summoned the strength of a boa constrictor as she expediently moved in to try and assist Batman.

John ran to Shayera the moment the gas cleared, his arms wrapping around her encasing her in the green bubble that now surrounded the pair. "You alright?" he regarded her trying to keep an eye on what Metomorpho was doing outside the protective field, his heart hammering.

"Yeah-" Shayera coughed trying to get her lungs open and working correctly once more, "I'll be fine," She croaked out, falling into another round of coughs for the effort. "Fo- _keh, keh_ – Focus on him…" She forced.

John, had unintentionally allowed himself to solely focus on the girl in his arms, when Metamorpho got his attention back. The walking multicolored chemistry experiment had shifted his arms into a pickaxe and a sludge hammer, and was repeatedly striking the green bubble. John's split attention showed as cracks started to appear throughout the luminescent lime shield.

Reluctantly returning his attention to the battle at hand, John focused on maintaining the shield a bit longer in the hopes Hawkgirl could finish catching her breath before the green bubble popped.

Vixen had a tight hold on Captain Atom, Batman was wasting no time in swinging the batarang's sharp edge at the silver fabric. A whole would scatter Captain Atom throughout the room, then they would need to have the watch tower put together a new suit and put the fighter back together again without the influence of the comlink….

Bruce was just swinging down to slice the fabric when Captain Atom sent out a good wave energy blast, once more knocking back Batman and Vixen from him.

Vixen touched the necklace and channeling Grodd the Gorilla's telepathy, she concentrated trying to access the Captain's head. Batman pulled a bola from his belt and threw it at the legs of his silver opponent. Captain Atom gracefully dodged the weighted rope and turned to blast the African warrior. The blast tipped up violently as a second bola wrapped around the Captain's arms and changed the trajectory.

Using the chaos, Vixen dove into the Captain's mind, 'Nathanial, can you hear me?' searching out his mind with her own Mari was continuing to call to the Captain they all thought of as ally and friend… However, no answers were coming back to her….

Batman wasn't sitting idle as he made his way to the partially tied up combatant. He was almost to the Captain, when Captain Atom yanked his arms apart hard and snapped the bola. Turning on the Dark Knight he raised his arms up high and promptly brought them back down to strike the top of Batman's head. Bruce seeing the oncoming attack pushed off with his right foot to doge left missing the aggressive hit.

Vixen seeing she was getting nowhere touched her necklace again summoning the speed of snow leopard. Moving at Flash like speeds she zipped toward their lost comrade and whirled circles around the Captain.

Captain Atom raised himself up out of the tornado that was Vixen. His hands alight, Nathaniel prepared to blast at the speeding female.

The green sphere shattered under the continued force of Metamorpho. John flew backwards out if the way as the two melee weapons struck the spot they had been.

Shayera had recovered from the gas, pushing at John's arms to let him know she was ok now she spread her wings and took to the air herself. Her mace crackling with energy the Thanigarian was ready to action.

The four colored opponent before them shifted his shape again to that of a spring and started to bounce off the floor up high by his flying prey. Hawkgirl let out a loud cry as she swung the mace hard and took slammed it into Metamorpho's head. The head itself turned to putty and splattered white goo around the room and onto the Thanigarian. However, a single circular electronic also splashed out and fell to the ground.

John wasn't about to leave it all to Hawkgirl, floated forward and concentrating on his ring created a giant fork that started to spin catching the slinky like Metamorpho and wrapping him around the prongs like a piece of multi colored spaghetti.

Rex unfazed by his current predicament changed into a liquid and slid off the huge cutlery onto the floor. Shayera folded her wings against her body and dove towards the floor ready to beat at the water for a time. Staying a liquid Rex allowed Hawkgirl to whack at his wet form, watching as more and more of the water mixed with the clay already sticking to her legs, chest and wings.

John watched frowning, was Rex even still down there? Scanning the room to see if Metamorpho had snuck to another part of the room, He missed the movements going on below.

Rex slowly used the disruptions caused by the mace to mask his own movements and slide closer to the Thanigarian warrior. Commanding the clay and water splashes on the girl to start to come together Rex pushed more of the water up her legs to meet it. Shayera paused her strikes to look down at herself in horror, as she was rapidly being encased, the substances changing to stone. "Let go!" She demanded with a grunt as she struck the stone with her mace shattering a chunk of it, but the substance was starting to spread behind her to her wings. She recalled him shooting concreate at her wings when he first was made, it hadn't been her favorite thing to happen….

John hearing her cry out, locked his eyes on the ground once more. Eyes narrowed John made a green, glowing, colossus, vacuum. He started to suck up Rex's water form into the translucent bag.

Flash was still in the battle with Superman, if only he could get the other comlink out of Clark's ear! Problem being, he had two handicaps in the room and he was sure he'd have some at least bruised and burned areas on his form, if not fractured or broken…

Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself Wally looked over the situation. He couldn't lose, if he did then Diana.. and Clark were in trouble. But while Wally was starting to tire and feel the stress of the areas that had taken one hit too many, Superman looked fresh and read to battle still. This wasn't good. Also Superman was quickly figuring out that the girl on the operating table was someone he wanted to protect so he had started targeting her to get more hits on Wally. Because Wally had taken the hit or rammed Superman each time and thus was taking more damage than before… Whipping some blood from the corner of his mouth Wally nodded to himself, he needed to end this soon. Ruefully, Wally wondered what was keeping the others. You would think they would have come looking for him by now.

The Man of Steel leveled a look at Wally and then his eyes turned once more to Diana's unconscious form. Eyes lighting up, Wally growled, and rushed at the red and blue powerhouse wincing as one of his ribs protested an earlier beating it had taken. Not deterred Superman fired his laser eyes and struck the speedster as he passed by. Wally cried out as he spun out of his run and crashed into some now broken medical equipment at the speed of a bullet. Slightly disorientated Wally lay in the indentation of the machine he just destroyed and lifted a hand to his throbbing head. His side screamed from the burn he had earned from this last attack. He was now upping the probability that he had broken a bone or two on his ribs… Looking up as Superman regally strode over to him, Flash tried to get up and fell back down hissing in pain. The next instant he felt Superman's hand wrap tightly around his neck and lift him up.

Trying to grab at the steel grip to loosen it Flash struggled and squirmed. He tried to vibrate his way out to no avail. This was it… he failed…

Superman was about to squeeze harder and snap Flash's neck when a pair of strong hands wrapped around Superman's waist and squeezed tight enough to make him drop Flash to the floor. "Shazam!" As lightning flooded the Man of Steel's system and burned through his costume.

Billy could recall doing this with Superman once before, it was the day he had fought with his all-time hero at Luther's housing project. The day he had been disillusioned by the heroes around him. However, Billy wasn't going to lose this time. He had been walking around looking for Wally and he had found him all right… Seeing the speedster's plight Billy had rushed in to save his life. Now he would deal with Superman. He'd see how Clark liked a more even fight. "Shazam!" He called again careful to not let Superman get a hold of him as he had in their last fight. No he'd inflict some damage here.

Wally weakly opened his eyes, amazed that he was in a LOT of pain and therefore must still be alive. His ears felt like they were full of cotton as he kept hearing screams and a word being called out over and over again. What was the word? Disorientated, Wally turned his head and regretted it as another wave of pain racked his system, the lights were flashing… Shakily he forced himself to his feet. Wally staggered a bit as his head swam. There was something important going on… Something he needed to do…

"Shazam!" followed by another scream.

Wally squinted his eyes again trying to get them to focus, "Captain…. Marvel?" He wheezed out.

"Shazam!" followed by another scream.

Wally staggered forward a few steps nearly toppling over, there was something he needed from Superman's left ear… what was it?

"Shazam!" followed by another scream.

Wally called out shocked by how horse his voice sounded and how painful talking was. But he needed to say this, it was important, though his brain couldn't connect with why right now. "Left- ear….. get the left ear..."

Billy, kept his grip but stopped his lightning, as he heard the scratchy choked words from the beaten to an almost drunken state Flash swayed a few feet away.

Superman's costume was smoking from the torrent of electricity he had just been exposed to. He seemed momentarily stunted. Cautiously Billy lifted a hand and quickly swept the inside of Clark's left ear. The comlink popped out into Billy's hand and was immediately crushed.

A groan came from Billy's burden. Panicked Captain Marvel pulled back and punched Superman hard in the cheek.

Letting out a cry of pain, Superman rapidly put his arms up to block any further assault. "What's the big idea!?" he growled.

Billy stopped, and looked at his childhood hero, "Are you awake now?" He demanded.

Superman lowered his arms to look at 'the boy scout'. Then he took stock of the room. Saw Flash looking for all the world like a dead man walking, who had beaten Wally so hard? He felt pretty bad himself… Clark then wondered, did Billy do this? His eyes almost missed it in the great destruction of the room but amongst the rubble and the crumbling ceiling there was a form on the table…. Focusing closer, Clark's heart skipped a beat it was Diana… "You did this?" He half asked half growled at Billy.

Billy sighed and let Superman go, always jumping to conclusions… "No." Billy responded calmer than he felt, "You did."

To be continued…


	9. Chapter 9 Escape

Loss of Control 

Chapter 9 Escape

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's note: While I know it could be a possibility that Batman could have a signal blocker, where would the fun be in making it too easy? I think better yet, he creates one to carry because of this experience. Besides the battles on this round are about to close anyways. ^_~

Lex sat at a desk, his hands threaded together under his nose, leaning over in deep thought and interest as he watched the security monitors with growing distain. He had planned with many out comes in mind and the Justice League winning so far wasn't a problem, it was just annoying it was headed that way. Oh well, spilt milk…. He'd have to cut his losses today… He picked up his smart phone and pressed a few buttons on the app he had installed to make his control more portable. While he may have lost two already, he was not yet ready to release Captain Atom… He was going to restore Brainiac and therefore still needed the Atomic man's aide. The others well with the spell Tala put in place he wasn't truly losing anything. Satisfied Lex called Captain Atom back, instructing Metamorpho to cause more trouble.

Turning around to look at the purple witch, Lex dropped one hand to his side as he leaned back in the chair and regarded her, "We need an exit my dear." He softly ordered with a sweeping gesture.

Tala who had been standing across the room, pulled away from the wall and nodded, "Of course…" She started to open the portal but realized perhaps she was giving herself away and added an endearment as an afterthought, "baby."

John assuming his vacuum would handle Metamorpho for the moment dropped down to see if he could help free the rather enraged Thanigarian from the stone that was encasing her legs and back and starting to creep up her wings.

Shayera was still trying to shatter the stone from her, but the more she broke the more chunks flew up and momentarily liquefied before landing on her and adhering to her arms and face. When John landed beside her, he chuckled, "You look to be a little stuck there."

Shayera growled, "It's NOT funny!" she bit. The stone changed consistency again, from stone to more of a pink taffy. To Shayera's shock she felt the taffy tug her arms and legs hard. Forcing her to turn around and swing her mace at John, connecting with his stomach. The Green Lantern stumbled back at the sudden strike letting out a grunt as he doubled over in pain.

"I got the message." He grunted wondering if he had pushed her too hard with the teasing…

"It wasn't ME!" Shayera called out to him, as she fought against the taffy's pull. How could he believe she would do that to him during a battle of all places?! He could be so infuriating at times.

John put a hand up trying to calm the girl as he still doubled over started to back pedal to get some space to deal with her.

While John was dealing with the winged girl, Rex created Sodium and Water out of his arms and watched with delight as the Vacuum bag shattered with the resulting explosion.

Vixen skidded to a stop beside batman when her target took to the air thus negating her current attack. Captain Atom hovered high above them both as he pointed his two arms at the pair and released a large explosion of power. Both animal based heroes leapt to the sides to avoid the attack. Behind them where John and Shayera were doing their own battle a large explosion also occurred. When they looked back up, Captain Atom was nowhere to be seen.

Vixen frowned and summoned the power of an Eagle's sight with her necklace. "It's like he just…. Left…" Vixen muttered with a frown. Still searching the room, a bit of metal caught her eye from behind one of the desks in the room… Bruce frowned and clenched his fist, He had hoped to save Captain Atom in this raid too, but they'd have to figure out where he went first… Batman turned to the door, he was going to gamble and go after the Captain. Before he even took 3 steps Batman found he had a new problem blocking his path. Metamorpho stood there shooting fire.

Flash was still in pain but he was finally getting enough oxygen to his mind to recall the situation at hand. Leaning against a toppled machine to help him remain standing Wally quietly watched. When the fight had ended, Dr. Stevil had tried to make a break for it, but Captain Marvel had managed to grab him before he escaped and was also watching as the last few stitches were finally added to Wonder Woman's laceration. Superman was in what appeared to be shock, that he had caused the destruction around the group, that he was responsible for Wally's current state…

Wally sighed, while it would take longer to fully recover and his right side was still throbbing with at least one broken rib… He could at least enlist the Justice League members to help get Wonder Woman and him to wherever the others were… "Captain Marvel, Sups, the others should be here somewhere and we need to get to them."

Clark looked over at Wally guiltily, "Right. I'm sorry Flash…" He gestured to the speedster at a loss for how to fully make amends.

Wally tried to give Superman his best cocky grin, though he wasn't too sure it was successful based off of the continued throb of pain, "We all have our moments. I made my own fair share of mistakes with Grodd… You can ask GL."

Clark let out a breath to try and hide the snicker that desperately wanted to pass his lips. Superman had heard about that debacle, John had been livid to put it nicely. I mean the Gorilla had gotten control of Flash not just once but TWICE in the same twenty four hours. Clearing his throat, Clark nodded, feeling a bit better at the grace Flash had just shown him. It always amazed him how Flash could take the tension out of a situation so easily.

Billy looked over at the other two, He appreciated that Superman actually looked sorry for what he had done, but he never understood how the Flash was so carefree all the time. Seeing the doctor finish the procedure, Billy held up a hand, "Thanks, now get away from her."

Dr. Stevil was quick to comply not wishing to be on the receiving end of Captain Marvel's muscles. Undoing the restraints, Billy gingerly cradled the sleeping heroine in his arms. He'd saved people sure, but it felt wired holding Wonder Woman in his arms. She was so vulnerable, so different from the kind power house he knew…. Maybe he wasn't disillusioned by all of the heroes yet… "Let's go." He stated simply.

Superman gave a nod and offered a shoulder to Wally to aide him in walking down the corridors, to which Flash was grateful.

A green pair of scissors tried to cut through the pink taffy like substance controlling Shayera's movements, Shayera despite her struggle to stop herself, was in flight dodging the blades of the scissors and making her way closer to John Mace raised and ready. "Lantern!" She called out to her ex.

John narrowed his eyes concentrating on trying to cut that stuff off of her and staying out of reach at the same time…. Seeing how Hawkgirl gracefully dodged all of the cuts thus far, John decided to change tactics and try to capture her in a green bubble to limit her movement. Firing several streams of green out to encase the winged warrior, Shayera growled as her body nimbly avoided them all. Leaving the bubbles forming in her wake like a monotone firework show. If she could just get control of one arm, or one wing…. Still struggling she breathed hard, struggling was putting a lot of stress on her form and Shayera stopped fighting for a moment to try and plan, it would do her no good to tire herself out….

As her body continued to work its way through the traps and towards John, the Thanigarian experimentally flexed and focused on trying to move one appendage at a time… Though the goo was holding her fast.

John having moved into a corner and out of room to run finally made a judgment call, lowered his shield.

"What are you doing?!" Shayera yelled, angered that he wasn't even going to defend himself from her. That was so unlike the John she knew!

"Trust me!" He called to her as Shayera felt her mace arch downward towards Green Lantern's head. Cringing Shayera put her full effort into stopping her own arms, feeling her muscles protest at the sharp pull in two directions at once. Eyes closed unable to watch, "John!" She screamed as she felt her mace connect with something hard.

Vixen was quick to summon the speed of a horse but not fast enough to completely avoid getting hit by the fire. Hissing at the burn that was now gracing her left calf she focused on moving quickly to compensate for the injury. She wanted to investigate the bit of silver she had spotted earlier, it may just be a paperclip, but what if it was something more? Besides with the speed she now was using it would only be a moment for her to check it out.

Bruce used the grapple gun to attach itself to the ceiling and allow him to swing into Metamorpho. The soles of his feet connecting with the changeling, but they splashed upon contact – the other small comlink flying across the room. Batman landed with a splash to the ground. Bits of Metamorpho splattered on his boots and around the floor. Clicking open his utility belt, he grabbed a handheld item and then, twisting, Batman was quick to engage the meta human once more, taking a swing at Rex's head. Once again it liquefied and droplets stuck to the Dark Knight's glove. Taking another hit Batman made sure to pull the pin and drop the freeze grenade onto Metamorpho with it.

Leaping back Batman shielded himself from the blast as Metamorpho froze solid.

Vixen had zipped over to the desk, and picked up the small item she saw, to her shock it was a comlink! Glad she had followed her first gut feeling, she picked up the offending electronic and crushed it.

Shayera opened her eyes, breathing hard, with tears in the corner of her eyes that she was desperately trying to keep from falling, expecting to see John's injured head before her instead the entire surrounding had taken on a green glow, he'd caught her! The pink goo slid to a more relaxed position on her form finally releasing her from its control. "I'm ok now…" She stated flatly, just relieved, her legs folding under her as her knees buckled.

John smiled at the angel he held in the green bubble in front of him, he had cut it close but, he'd finally caught the winged minx.

Vixen stood by the desk, watching John and Hawkgirl. Now that the battle was done she allowed herself that luxury. The look on both of their faces, it bothered Mari… She felt the tendrils of hurt swirling in her stomach and raising up to try and over take her eyes. Clenching the fist that held the broken comlink harder she stamped it back down. She'd talk with John back at the watchtower and give him a chance to explain…

Batman Also saw the scene playing out before him, "If she's ok, get her out, and grab him." He briskly ordered, anxious to try and find where Flash, Captain Marvel and Diana were. Hopefully Captain Atom and Superman were with them too…

John coughed a bit to hide the embarrassment coloring his face as he swiftly lowered the orb holding Hawkgirl before releasing her and encasing the frozen Metamorpho in his green glow.

Turning Batman started to stride toward the door, he was biting back the urge to run… He opened it and started into the hallway, fully expecting the others to follow him.

Vixen, cast one more look at the man she loved and Shayera before deciding to follow Batman out, if she walked with John now, she'd want to talk…

Hawkgirl rose to her feet and pushed off the ground, her muscles were a little sore but she could still handle herself. Not wanting to talk much with John right now herself, she flew towards the hall tossing out a, "Thanks."

John seeing everyone hurry out, levitated Metamorpho's Ice cube with him and gave pursuit.

.


	10. Chapter 10 Aftermath

Loss of Control 

Chapter 10 Aftermath

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's note: Finally a time of piece. Well kinda. Enjoy the pairing interactions, it's not a go yet but it's fun to tease it and watch the stubborn character's start set up, even if they are baby steps. ^_~ Listening to The Flash's "Running Home to You" song while I wrote it. Seemed to set a good mood.

Batman looked at the hand he cradled in his own black gloved one. His eyes locked on the infirmary bed he sat beside. Diana was strong, she was no damsel, just as he was no wimp. That being said, their work placed them in danger all the time… This time she had had it bad. His eyes narrowed in both rage and disgust at the stitches and shaved portion of her ebony locks. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Wally had given him the transmitter that Luther had wanted to 'install' in her brain… Not vengeance but justice…. Part of him wanted to install the transmitter in Lex's head next time they met. Bruce knew he'd need to leave to try and get to his technical to do list with his Wayne tech engineers…. But part of him didn't want to leave, at least not until he saw her wake up. Her back had some damage but having bed rest and no further battles in the next couple days should help her system to mend itself… She was a meta after all.

Bruce started to tick off the reasons why he couldn't keep holding her hand, why he should just get up and go back to Gotham to fix the tech… He mentally repeated them over and over, his eyes kept tracing her resting form, locking on her hand inside his.

' _She's immortal… I'll grow old and die and she'll still be young… but she could still be killed. She could be taken from me- from this planet. She's part of the team. If they dated it gets messy and complicated- I'm only a part timer… Still part of the team. My enemies would go after her, but her own enemies already do, in fact many of my enemies were also her enemies now. Look what just happened_.'

He also still had lots of issues. He could write a book, issues and brooding for the rich and dangerous. A 500 page how to book, volume 1.

His thoughts faded as his eyes fell to their connected hands again. It was infuriating! His reasons were enough, there were good solid points and barriers there – so why the Hell can't he force himself to release her hand…

Lowering his head to hide his eyes, to get the vision of their touching hands out of his direct line of sight. He'd just hold her hand until she woke up. Then he'd wish her well and go home to fix the tech… yeah that would work.

Flash laid back in the infirmary too. The speedster had been right, two broken ribs, a fractured right wrist and 37 other fractures within his right hand. Severe bruising on his neck, a sore throat, large areas of black and blue on his sides and arms, and a black left eye. Not to mention the burns… He'd be out in about two or three days with his system. He was a little upset though, he wouldn't get to visit Fire or Diana or Shayera in the med bay. At least they might be better way before he was. The only one he might beat was Diana, but that was a maybe. Besides, he didn't like to sit still. He'd try to chill for a while and then he'd just sneak out, the meds they gave him must be working their magic. Waiting thirty seconds Wally got up and tried to run when the pain in his side shot through him enough to make the speedster pause and clutch his side in pain. Yeah maybe he'd rest a bit longer – though those thirty seconds had felt like an eternity.

John was there. Shayera looked at him from her infirmary bed, not sure how to react. She was torn. Part of her wanted to smile like it would break her face that he was here, the other part of her knew he wasn't here for her as a lover, only as a friend. He had someone else… That thought burned worse than any of her injuries.

"How do you feel?" John asked, arms crossed trying to keep a barrier between the two of them.

"I'll heal." She answered easily enough, she knew she'd be out sooner than Diana or Wally….

John just stared at her, saying nothing – just looking at her… What on Thanigar was he thinking? "Is there something else?" She asked trying to hide the bitterness from her voice. It was just uncomfortable to have him standing there drilling holes through her with his eyes, looking so tense himself…

Shaken out of his thoughts, John shook his head and rubbed the back of it, embarrassed, "uh- no. Get well soon." He quickly tossed out before hurriedly walked out of the room.

Why did this always have to be so hard? Shayera thought laying back… Frowning Shayera looked up at the ceiling, a wave of loneliness swept over her. Hurt or not, she wasn't too bad off.. decision made she decided to go visit Wally.

Diana felt light on her face, resisting the urge to open her blue eyes, Diana forced her breathing to remain even. Last she recalled Lex was threatening to operate on her and she had tried to fight. Why was she awake now? Had they succeeded? She felt her hand being held by something, firm, but soft and warm… She was debating if she was restrained or not. She'd love to punch anyone nearby and try to make an escape again- wait she'd called –

Bruce felt her hand twitch experimentally and Diana's face was fairly unaffected and peaceful, he started to think he was imagining things, but the tips of her lips started to slide into a frown as worry lines started to twitch and appear for a fleeting second or two then restore before reforming on her face. She's awake and trying not to panic… "You're safe Princess." He breathed out loud enough to be heard but in a way Batman hoped was comforting.

Bruce. She'd called Bruce! Her eyes sliding open Diana felt her eyes collect moisture from her relief, she blinked a few times trying to banish the tears. She couldn't cry, she was a warrior of Themisca, and Bruce had enough reasons to not let her in, crying even to release the stress that was no longer needed would just make her look weak. But she didn't think she'd have the strength to go train herself to release that tension for a few days.

Bruce was about to pull his hand away when her eyes opened, but the stormy oceans he saw there, that were watery tear filled made him pause, how could he take his hand from her when she looked like that. Leveling her with an assessive gaze, Bruce decided to try a tiny bit of humor himself, he wasn't Wally but maybe she'd find it a good enough distraction. Using his free hand, he opened a compartment on the utility belt and pulled out a gag gift Barbra had given him, it was a small handkerchief that had the bat symbols on it… it was the batchief. He'd rolled his eyes and stuffed it in his belt intending to toss it in his mini museum of wins but never gotten around to it. Now maybe, just maybe it would be useful… Bruce mentally sighed when they came out as a team to the world a TV show was put out about him and Robin. It was very light hearted and the Batman there always had ridiculous gadgets like bat shark repellent…. (Of course they had created alter egos for the pair that were far from the truth) Having the gag batcheif made him feel like he was reaching that level of idiocrasy.

Taking the batcheif with his right hand, Bruce tenderly brought it to Diana's face and helped to dab at the moisture. "It's okay Princess, you're back and safe." – _I'm here_. He wanted to add the last part but held back.

The amazon princess felt her tight hold on the tears start to slip as she redoubled her efforts and decided to try and find out what happened while she was out. "Batman," she took a shuttering breath, "Lex was going to… going to operate…"

Bruce sighed, she knew… part of him had hoped she didn't know and they could just keep her away from mirrors while she recovered and discuss the matter with her once she was well. "They tried." He answered squeezing the hand he held a bit tighter, "but Wally was scouting the building and stopped it before they could put the transmitter in your brain." Bruce swallowed recalling when his group had met with Wally's at the compound.

Batman heard steps coming and saw shadows around the corner, not sure it they were friend or foe, he clicked open his utility belt and grabbed a baterang just in case. Vixen and Shayera saw Batman stop and followed suit. John finally catching up also followed stopping and waited.

Captain Marvel had rounded the corner. Relaxing and about ready to read the 'boy scout' the riot act for running off on his own, Bruce took a step forward, mouth open. The words died in his throat when his eyes finally registered the limp form in the Captain's arms… "Diana!" he'd breathed worry and panic trying to rule him. Slamming that part of him to the side he walked quickly to close the gap between the two and relaxed a bit when he saw her chest raise and fall. "You found her." He stated trying to get his feelings under control.

"They tried to operate." Came a scratchy voice that coughed a bit from the effort. Turning his gaze, There stood Wally leaning on Superman to walk, the Speedster's costume had several rips, and burned holes where Flash would need some time to recover.

Shayera was quick to go to Flash. She and Diana had always seen the flirtatious, reckless speedster as a younger brother and while she was worried about Diana too, she doubted Batman would share her much for a while… So she contented herself to go make over Wally by Superman. "If this is you, is the other guy worse?" She asked, letting a small smirk of pride picturing how bad his opponent must be.

Both Wally and Clark seemed to shift uncomfortably at her remark. Smile fading, "Who did this?" she demanded holding her mace. Her muscles were sore and she still had her collection of bruises, but she'd give payback 10 fold to whom ever did this if Flash had been unsuccessful.

Superman lifted his gaze to her, it looked pained, "It was me."

Hawkgirl drooped her wings, "Oh." She shock herself out of her shock and carefully placed a hand on Wally's shoulder, "Hey you came out alive, with Superman coherent! When you get well, we'll celebrate."

Wally gave her a weak lopsided grin then winced as he shifted wrong, "Sounds great."

Bruce had glanced at Wally and seen the damage. He was half listening to the conversation between Shayera and the others, but his gaze was glued back on the princess. Looking up at the slightly taller meta, Bruce spoke to Billy, "Let me take her."

Captain Marvel had wanted to say no, as he was stronger, but looking at how serious Batman was thought better of it and shifted the slumbering princess into Batman's arms.

Shaken out of the past by Diana's voice, Batman refocused on the present, "One more time Princess?" he asked slightly embarrassed that he had been so lost in his thoughts. When he eventually left her bed side, he'd take care of the tech but he'd go hunting - he needed to hit something…

"So, they didn't operate?" She asked again, her eyes finally noting what was on the handkerchief he had used to dry her eyes, it was so cute, and unlike Bruce… biting back her laugh, she needed this answer before she could relax…

"They started, they cut your hair…. And started to, but they turned around and stitched it closed before they actually did anything…" Bruce felt his throat dry out as he spoke. He hadn't wanted to tell her this.

Taking a deep breath, Diana closed her eyes before opening them again, "They must have me on some pain killers." She said with a ghost of a smile.

"The best." Batman let a slight smile reflect back at her.

The pair just kept their eyes locked with each other in companionable silence. It felt so right how Diana wanted this… but then his comment registered to her mind, they'd shaved her, and stitched her up… She never really focused on looks but, did it bother him at this moment. She searched his eyes relieved to find no disgust. She shouldn't have doubted him…. Deciding to break the silence Diana chose to tease him a bit. "I love the handkerchief." She commented lifting her free had to place over their still joined hands.

Bruce let out a breath, feeling a tiny bit of the tension leave his shoulders, she took it rather well, and she had saved him from making a mistake… part of him desperately wanted to cover her lips with his own, but that couldn't happen. Her light hearted comment had shaken him back to his senses. If she ever knew what she had just done he knew she'd be mad… smiling he replied, "You can keep it Princess."

John had left Shayera's room, he was mentally chiding himself that he had been a fool to go see her, but he couldn't help it. He was worried. He wanted to ask her what her relationship with Flash was. They seemed so close recently and it bothered him deeply. I mean Wally was a playboy he was too busy flirting with everything female… he was a good teammate, though that was questionable at times too, but not good enough for Shayera! He had watched the way she had flown to him when he was hurt and offer to celebrate his victory when he was well once more. Her delicate hand resting on Wally's shoulder so easily, naturally…. John let out a flustered growl. It was infuriating. When Wally was well he'd have to talk to the speedster. What were his intentions with Hawkgirl? He could recall a celebration at Christmas with Shayera… The snowball fight and the bar…

So lost in thought, thoughts he kept rehashing he didn't notice what was in front of him until a voice being cleared caught his attention.

Vixen had decided to take a shower and get cleaned up before talking to GL. When she came to find the Lantern he was visiting his ex… She had patiently waited but he had started to walk right by her fists clenched seeming to be rather flustered about something. "Not going to say hello?" She asked, her own arms crossed.

John snapped his attention to Mari. His girlfriend. "Sorry Mari…" he murmured turning to fully look at her.

She waited a few beats to see if he would say anything more, or ask how she was, but he was just looking at her- no through her, past her, not AT her.

"What is it Mari?" he finally asked, his eyes finally seeing her.

"We need to talk," Mari said trying to keep the frost out of her voice. "Let's go someplace more private."

John sighed, "Not now Mari." He sighed rubbing the back of his neck, he wasn't in the mood to be romantic or cuddle with her. He was so focused on his own thoughts he was missing what was happening in front of him. But then again, ever since Hawkgirl's return it had been an increasing condition of his…Why had she not seen it? Because she didn't want to…

"No John, we need to do this now." Mari put her foot down walking down the hall, if he didn't follow, she didn't want to do this in the hallway… 

John sighed, and trailed after the African protector.

Once in a more private chamber, Mari turned to John, looking at him. She loved him… she knew part of him loved her too, but not as much as he loved her…

"John, I don't think this is working…" she told him softly, her voice staying steady while her inner most feelings were tearing her to shreds. Her fists clenched tightly and trembled a bit trying to lock in the inner turmoil.

That got John's attention, "Mari- what do you mean?" He asked taking a step towards the model, hand lifted towards her.

"I mean, I'm done John." She said her soft gravelly with emotion voice carrying throughout the room as clearly as if she shouted.

"W-W-Why?" John asked looking at Mari in shock. He couldn't imagine why she would be calling it off. "Let's talk about this…" he pleaded trying to take her hand in his.

Vixen yanked her hand away, tears starting to prickle in the corners of her eyes, "Why?" she breathed darkly, "WHY?" she bit, "because John you don't _See ME_. You are always looking at _HER_." She took a couple of ragged breaths lifting the hand to her chest that he had tried to take cradling it like she had been physically burned.

John froze looking at her and the hurt in her eyes. He swallowed not sure what to say, it was obvious Mari was hurt… "Mari-"

"No." she bit, "save it John. I saw you at the battle, you rushed to help her, you just went to visit her first, you saw if she was ok," she took another deep breath tears silently falling down her cheeks, "I'm fine by the way, John, thanks for asking."

"Mari. It's not like that!" John tried again. He was panicking on the inside, he didn't want to lose Vixen.

"Isn't it?" she demanded.

John looked at her a deer in the headlights look sliding across his face, "Mari, I love you."

Mari let out a hiccupped whimper as she bit back the pressing desire to sob, "I-I love you too…" she forced out another sob slipping out, "but I see it now, you love her more. You prioritize her!" The room was quiet except for the pounding of both hearts and the occasional hiccupped sob that squeaked out from Mari. "You should go back to her John. I see that now." She sniffled a bit as she straightened her shoulders and walked to the door.

John stood motionless, not sure what he could say, opening his mouth to call her name again he was cut off when Mari paused at the door with her back to him.

I wish you the b-best John, but we are over." With nothing more to say she exited the room to go hide in her chamber and work through the pain…

"Mari!" John cried out, racing towards the door, "Mari wait!"

Exiting the room he found her already gone… tears pricking the corners of his own eyes John stood there unsure what to do at this moment. He'd lost Mari…

To be continued…


	11. Chapter 11 Dealing with Feelings

Loss of Control 

Chapter 11 Dealing with Feelings

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's note: Opportunity to offer thoughts, I'm debating on adding Robin later, but if I do which Robin should I add? Dick? Tim? Damion? Or none at all. I know he doesn't show in Justice League TV, so I'd be basing him off of the Batman show or the Justice League movies respectively if added.

Clark sighed as he leaned his head against the cool icy wall of the fortress of solitude. Once he had returned he had made sure Wally and Diana were taken to the infirmary, checked to find out Metamorpho was also back to himself and then he had taken off… He needed to think. This wasn't the first time he had been taken over or tricked into hurting those he cared about. Pulling back his arm he slammed his fist into the icy wall. How many times would he fail? How many times would he put those around him at risk.

He hated the idea of CADMS. He had been so upset with the things CADMS had done to them and to civilians and yet here he was losing control himself again… Maybe Green Arrow was right to defend them saying that he was scared of him. Heck right now Clark was scared of himself… He wanted to know exactly how he had damaged Wally so much, but then he was scared to find out too. Sighing again and pulling away from the cracked wall, Clark decided to take a walk through the fortress of solitude and see if he could come up with any good ideas on how to keep himself in check… Poor Lois, what if he ever hurt her? He had had a hand in hurting Diana too… Maybe the world was better off without a Superman. Maybe…

Diana looked at the dark blue handkerchief that was dotted with little yellow and black bat symbols. A smile spreading across her face. It was a gift from her favorite bat… She loved it. Bruce had finally said his good bye and left her to rest. Granted she couldn't get up yet, but it was like he hadn't left, leaving a little reminder of himself with her. She knew she was being ridiculous, but she really didn't care right now. Yawning, Diana sighed, her body would heal quicker if she rested… decision made, she took the slip of bat cloth and placed it on her pillow next to her head. She wanted it to be the first thing she saw when she awoke.

Flash was so glad when his door opened and a familiar figure walked in toting an IV stand of her own, "Hey you." He greeting with a wide grin. He had desperately wanted company, and despite his several attempts his side had continued to protest the movement…

Shayera's face reflected his own, happy to have a friend to talk to as well. Especially after John's visit… "Hey." She gave a small wave before pulling up a chair next to the grounded blur. "How are you holding up?" She asked smiling.

Wally smiled at her, "I'm doing better now that you're here." He told her honestly.

Shayera reached out and took Flash's hand as the two made small talk well into the night. 

A face slammed into a department store window. The lackey's dazed eyes stared into nothing, as the t-shirt clad thug started to slide down the window pane, leaving a streak of saliva and mucus much as a snail would as he collapsed unconscious to the ground.

Batman had returned to Earth and allowed Diana to get some rest… he had stopped by Wayne Enterprises and gave his tech man, Lucius Fox his tech wish list. Then suiting up he had grabbed the batmobie and went looking for trouble. He had some aggression he needed to work out. As luck would have it, He found Penguin and a handful of 'feathered finks' trying to rob a jewelry store.

Having raced out of the bat mobile, the caped crusader had made his way into the store, and was now dealing with the intruders. Bruce was glad to have this distraction from other thoughts he really should leave alone…

A rather well built thug with a navy blue shirt on, with torn sleeves rushed at the Dark Knight and fist pulled back was ready to punch at his enemy. Batman easily read the lackey's moves and leapt to the side before striking him on the back of the neck, dropping the hired helper easily into dreamland. Maybe he would land a hit on Batman in his dream…

Diana had looked so helpless crumpled and limp in Captain Marvel's arms. How it made his heart ache with worry for her and angry with Luther…

Gun fire rang out as two brawny minions dressed similar to the other two, came at Batman with machine guns firing. Moving behind one of the jewelry counters, Batman quickly took out two baterangs and peaked over to throw the projectiles. Both 'bats' sailed through the air and found their targets, forcing the shooters to drop their weapons with a cry of pain.

Her hair half gone and the stitches in her head…. Made his blood boil further.

Weapons down, Batman flung himself over the counter to where the now disarmed men stood. The one on the right tried to punch him and the one on the left tried to kick him. Ducking down, both men missed and were subject to the low spin kick Batman performed. Knocking both men off their feet.

How her eyes had teared up when she awoke from her sleep in relief. She still looked so beautiful.

Not allowing the men time to get up Batman swiftly jumped up and used gravity to further aid the weight of his punches as he knocked both of the men out.

Her hand resting in his as he sat next to her. He hadn't wanted to let go.

Seeing no one else in the store, Batman rushed out of the building and down the alleyway. Rounding a corner, he saw Penguin had a bag of gems in one hand and the trademark umbrella in the other. The last two of his ruffians stood between him and the Bat.

Her cute reaction when she had seen the batcheif he'd used to dry her tears… Her eyes had lit up with amusement, and when he'd given it to her, she had held it in her hands like it was something precious.

Taking out an exploding baterang, Batman threw it at the small group using the resulting explosion to hide the bola's he was throwing at them. The two henchmen tried to attack their assailant, but the bolas worked their wonders and both dropped to the ground stuck.

The moment he had wanted to kiss her and re-experience the soft feel of her lips as he had done during the Thanagarian invasion.

"There is nowhere left to run Penguin." He warned eyes narrowing as he stocked his prey.

"Now, now, there is always a way out…" he cackled like a duck. Opening his purple umbrella a pink gas started to emerge from the tip snaking through the air and creating a pink cloud between the pair.

He wanted to finish things up to return to her side and just continue holding Diana's hand. He wanted to watch her get better before his eyes.

Coughing, Batman rapidly pulled out his mini gas mask and slipped it on. Feeling clean air enter his lungs, Batman then ran after his advisory.

All of these thoughts on Diana were traders to him! Bruce knew why he couldn't be with her.

Seeing his target in sight, Batman increased his pace, closing in, catching up.

They were on the same team.

Pulling back his fist Batman swung downward and connected with the Penguin's raised pink umbrella.

She was immortal.

Swinging his torso around, Batman positioned himself and attempted a kick to Penguin, thus also retreating his right arm back from the earlier punch. The avian villain blocked but dropped the bag of sparkling jewels to the floor in the process.

His enemies would attack her – she'd be in danger.

Taking another shot at him, Batman feigned another punch, but then swept Penguin's feet out from under him with a crouched sweeping kick.

Plus he had lots of issues like his parents death, his playboy persona of Bruce Wayne…

Penguin was on the ground, on his back, complaining about losing Bruce guessed, he was so lost in his thoughts he wasn't really listening as he tied the menace up to leave for the police.

He'd kept away from Diana for quite a while now, in order to prevent himself from making a mistake… Nothing could happen between them. She was safe now, he'd have to force himself to stay away. He hoped a lot more crime was going to be occurring in his city for the next few days… He desperately needed the distraction.

John had gone outside of the watch tower and was sitting knees up in a fetal like position perched on the bottom of the tower, just staring at the world below. He knew he had messed up. He had wanted to choose Vixen. He'd cared for her, but even more so, Vixen was his choice! The Universe had proclaimed that he and Shayera would be together to sire Warhawk. John hated the idea that he had no say in the matter. It wasn't fair.

Sighing and wiping away some moisture that was clinging to his eyes in the zero gravity, Green Lantern started making a plan to get Mari to forgive him and take him back.

Vixen was still crying as she wrote her letter with a shaky hand, she was requesting a leave of absence from the league. She didn't know when or if she would be back, but she needed this time away from John. Nodding to herself, Mari roughly wiped at her eyes with the back of her arms. Then she started throwing some clothes in a bag. She'd go back home for a while.

To be continued.


	12. Chapter 12 Getting Back on Our Feet

Loss of Control 

Chapter 12 Getting Back on Our Feet

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for the reminder that the Batman in Justice League follows the Batman Animated series. Opps I completely blanked. ^^

Three days, and he hadn't come back… Diana stood now in the darkened streets of Gotham city. It was strangely quiet, the only light coming from a couple unreliable street lamps that flickered in different rhythms. Wonder Woman looked around her cautiously – waiting. She didn't have to wait long as a baterang came down striking the ground where she had stood only moment ago. Jumping to the roof top nearby she saw him, "Found you." She hissed as she flew straight at the Dark Knight fists forward. Batman was quick to grab a hold of her and kick her in the stomach, rolling on his back to further propel her past him.

Diana slammed into the roof top entrance on that particular building. Standing back to her feet she dusted the rubble off herself and once more faced her opponent. During the three days of bed rest, Diana's meta human abilities had healed her, she wondered if Apollo had also had something to do with it, but she wouldn't hold her breath. He may be one of the gods she served, but they tended to be inconsistent in their aide… Her hair had also been restored. Looking at her now you'd have no idea of all the trouble and pain she had been in recently.

A bola came flying at her feet out of the darkness, taking to the air once more the weighted cord crashed uselessly into the rubble. "Is that the best you've got?" She called out. Then diving back towards the ground Diana prepared to continue dancing with her Dark Knight.

Bruce sat in the Batcave looking at the computer monitor. He'd gotten the new Tech from Fox and was ready to deliver it… Looking at the security tapes, he rested his chin on his folded hands, elbows propped up on the table. He'd been checking the watch tower security a lot lately. It was the only way he could convince himself that he didn't need to go up there. He couldn't go up there. If he did, he'd want to stay and sit with her… So he had contented himself over the last few days with watching her through the security monitors. She had been recovering nicely, and she had spent a lot of time staring at that little handkerchief he had left her with…

Swallowing, Bruce didn't want to even think about what her obsession with that cloth was doing to him, emotionally… Especially seeing where she stored it that morning when she was finally given her armor once more. The Wonder Woman outfit didn't exactly have pockets, so she had tucked it over her heart.

Checking the monitors to see what she was doing now, well, he wondered if Diana was a little upset at his lack of appetences over the past few days. Judging from how many hits she was landing on the training program version of him, he guessed she probably was.

He'd explained himself before and she had seemed to back off, now with the disaster of the comlink hack it seemed like Diana was going to be pushing things again. Problem being is that part of him wanted to be with her. That part of him was illogical, irrational and idiotic. It made Bruce feel like a school boy when he thought through that piece of him. He couldn't let it happen.

So lost in his thoughts, Bruce didn't even notice another presence in the room, until it was too late. "Woah! Wonder Woman is really wiping the floor with you." Tim stated in amazement and slight sympathy. The twelve year old handed his mentor a mug of tea. "So what did you do to make her so mad?"

Turning the screen off, Bruce spun his chair around to look at his ward fully. "Nothing." He said calmly, before taking a sip of the tea.

Tim cocked an eyebrow and shook his head, letting it go for now. Taking a sip of his own tea. "If you say so…"

Bruce sighed, he had to go to the watch tower today. He hoped he could keep it together around the Princess. At least she seemed back to normal.

Shayera was running the League. She had been for the last two days. Jo'an was still MIA due to his resignation and disappearance, Diana and Wally had been recovering, Green Lantern had put in a temporary leave of absence and gone who knows where, Superman had also dropped off the face of the Earth three days ago, and well Batman… He'd refused saying something about how badly Gotham had needed him the past few nights…. So after one day of leaderlessness, Shayera took command.

She was still trying to find out what had happened to Captain Atom and Lex after the rescue attempt. But it seemed that Lex was laying low and did not wish to be found at this time.

One thing Shayera was grateful for was that everyone was pretty well recovered now.

Shayera frowned, she deeply missed the comlinks, she had sent Super Girl out to try and find her cousin yesterday. The young adult had yet to return…

Sighing, Hawkgirl looked over the list of active members and those she could reach most easily. Superman had been under Lex's control, and had appeared to be better, but what if he wasn't… What if Super girl was battling her brain washed cousin this whole time with no way to communicate her plight? She should send a team to check on the cousins of steel.

Choice made, Shayera didn't exactly like it, but she'd send in what she had to work with that could be effective.

Flash was so happy to be able to run again. He chalked up his ability to wait the few days for his full recovery to the help of good friends. Shayera had practically moved into his room the first day and kept him company, until she found out that Creeper had taken control of the League and was well, being him… Let's just say Creeper wasn't good leader material. It would take a while before most of the watch tower residence got his laughter out of their nightmares as he had just gotten on the PA system and started broadcasting whatever he felt like between laughs…

Once Shayera had taken over command, Fire had been moved into the same recovery room as Flash was in. Hawkgirl had asked the Brazilian warrior if she would mind, and Fire was very happy to agree. It gave him something to focus on besides sitting still… And when he had tried to run off, Fire or Shayera had been quick to try and talk him out of it or convince him to stay. Though, he preferred Fire's form of persuasion to Shayera's. Fire was such a good kisser…. Shayera let her mace settle him down…. Owch.

Free at last, Flash was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with Bre. He had been so worried about the South American heroine when she had come in hurt from Roulette's fight club. Now that both heroes were well, the speedster was plotting another date. Taking a drink of his iced mocha frappuccino, Wally looked at the mint haired exotic model. "Sooooo…. I guess I had better thank you…" He began blushing under his mask. Trying to keep his nervous hands busy by fiddling with the straw in his drink.

"Thank me? For what?" Bre asked taking a drink of her own iced coffee.

Flash smiled softly, it was funny he normally was so comfortable flirting with girls, but Bre was different, he felt so shy around the confident Brazilian. "Well, I think the special medicine you gave me helped speed up my recovery a lot."

Bre looked at him oddly, "Medicine?"

Wally nodded leaning forward, "Yeah, just like this." He leaned in to peck Bre on the cheek, when he froze hearing his name being called.

"Flash!"

Already jittery from his flirtations, when Wally heard Shayera call out his name his speed kicked in, the rest of the world slowed to stop as Wally leapt up, and zipped across the room, behind Fire, around the table and finally stopped in front of the Thanigarian that now stood at the entrance of the cafeteria. "You called?" He asked trying to sound nonchalant.

Fire stood up as well and was looking around, trying to figure out where Wally had zipped off to.

Shayera sighed placing a hand to her forehead in exasperation, she hadn't meant to startle the speedster so. Cursing in Thanagar's native tongue, she turned to Bre, "Fire, you too."

Bre looked over and was glad to find her lunch date there as well.

Shayera walked with the pair to the training room, she had one more member of the group to pick up.

Laser red eyes landed on the amazon. Noting them, Diana was quick to hold up her bracelets. The twin lasers came for her and bounced away from her arms, as the amazon princess made her way closer. She had fought with Batman as Batman on several different difficulty levels this morning. Some she won, but at the higher levels the Bat had gotten the drop on her a few times. Deciding to play with the settings Diana had found it interesting that not only could she fight Batman, but she could pick another person's power set for that 'character' to use. Right now she was fighting Batman with a Superman power set. It was different that was for sure.

She had just reached where her combatant was, when the simulation ended and the room lost all of its color returning to white.

Diana frowned, and turned to find out who had shut down her practice.

Seeing Hawkgirl, Fire and Flash standing in the doorway, Diana ran a hand through her hair but bit back the complaint. "Yes?" she asked trying to keep herself to business.

Shayera could see that Diana had been testing herself, measuring her abilities, checking that she was once more fighting fit, and from her results, she was fine. "I have a mission for you." She stated simply, one hand on her hit sassily.

Diana nodded in understanding. Grabbing the towel and water bottle she had brought with her, she tossed the fluffy white towel over her shoulders and while walking out, took a good drink of the mountain fresh liquid.

Walking with them to the teleportation room, Hawkgirl started to lay out the mission, "The three of you are going to Superman's fortress of Solitude to check on him and Supergirl. I sent Kara yesterday and she has yet to return. I have no idea what you will face once you arrive."

Hawkgirl looked at the team standing before her, it was their first mission after recovery, and they were strong… it should be fine, even if Superman was not as fixed as they originally thought.

"Any questions?" She asked, using her training from her days in the Thanigarian army to help her lead. When no one spoke up, Shayera nodded, "Alright then if you would report to the- " The international phone rang. Frowning, Shayera answered it, "Hello?"

Listening for a few beats the Thanigarian nodded and hit some buttons on the teleporter. Moments later Batman and several boxes were on the watch tower.

Diana took another drink of her water, finishing the bottle. She was not going to let him know in front of everyone how upset with him she was that he had failed to visit her in the last few days. So she was trying to keep herself busy.

Batman looked around and saw the small group ready to head out, Diana was with them… She stood there looking heathy and strong. Watching the amazon finish her water bottle, he knew he was in a bad spot. She could make the most mundane things look breath taking to him… "I brought the new tech." He reported gesturing to the boxes.

Shayera nodded, "Thank you." She went over and took out a handful of new comlinks. Hawkgirl tossed three in the direction of the outgoing team. "Put these on. And take these to Clark and Kara." She added handing Flash two more of the communication devices.

Batman frowned, "They're visiting Clark?" He inquired, eyes narrowing fractionally. With a team of three it didn't look like it was just a quick friendly drop off… Plus the team had already been assembled before his arrival… He wanted answers now. All three members of that team had just finished recovering from bad fights, two of which had taken some of that damage from the Man of Steel himself….

Shayera sighed seeing the dark look Batman was shooting her, "Clark has been missing since the rescue, and I'm guessing he's in his fortress up North. I sent Kara to check it out yesterday and she hasn't come back…."

Unconsciously placing a hand on the lead lined pocket that contained the Kryptonite Bruce's frown deepened. "I'll go with them." He replied.

Opening her mouth to argue, Shayera felt the words die in her throat at the look he shot her. Her own heart clenching painfully. He was going and nothing she could say would dissuade him. Diana was going, and well Bruce always took the idea of dealing with a rouge Superman personally. Now that would be a fight worth seeing… maybe they'd make a movie – but Hollywood tends to mess things like that up… probably not a good idea. Still even if they weren't together, Shayera knew that look Batman had on his face, John used to get that look over her… Sometimes for a heartbeat she'd think she'd seen him look at her like that once more, but then there was Vixen… If they were on Thanigar then she could challenge her to a duel, or poison her water… But that's not how Earth worked, and not what heroes of Earth do…. Darn!

So lost in all her thoughts, Shayera realized she hadn't said anything yet, "Fine- Okay!" she bit throwing her hands up flustered at the direction her thoughts had headed. She would have emotionally done better to continue contemplating how Hollywood could possibly mess up a movie with Batman fighting Superman- it way less personal. Turning abruptly around she stormed over to the control panel once more, using her ruff steps to gain a measure of control over herself.

Bruce raised an eyebrow, something was obviously eating at Shayera, but for now he'd won. Moving the boxes of comlinks off to the side, he prepared for teleport. Fire, Flash and Wonder Woman – now minus the fluffy sports towel, were also in position.

Diana had seen the interaction between Bruce and Hawkgirl, she'd add it to her 'things to talk to Bruce about' list. She knew how Batman took Superman as his personal responsibility at times, but was that really the only reason he was coming on this mission? Her hand instinctively reaching up to rest on her left side of her chest – where the handkerchief was hidden.

The four of them were teleported down to the fortress of solitude.

John was trying to enjoy his drink. He'd gone to the Omega quadrant third moon of Galtos… It was loud, bustling with aliens from all parts of the galaxies, and the drinks here were sill maggot ridden swill water… and yet this is where he had gone… Why? He couldn't even begin to say. He had hated it when Shayera had brought him here for Christmas three years ago, he'd hated it again when he came here to think after her deception and departure… And yet here he was again after Mari left… If he'd wanted a drink the logical part of his brain wondered why he hadn't gone to a pub on Earth where the drinks were tolerable… Gazing it to the frothy white foam on top of his mug he sighed pushing it away from him again… Well, there was one other activity here that John didn't really mind losing himself in at the moment. Picking up the gray beer mug with a hand he then tossed the putrid, fermented, slop of a drink at another patron of the establishment. He wasn't disappointed as it became an all-out brawl. Maybe this would help him clear his head.

Kara was fuming. She paced the floor in the green house hall. It was the closest to actually being on Krypton, and she needed to clear her head. Her cousin was so – so- so thick headed! So what? He had lost his mind to Lex for a day. She'd had to deal with Roulette making her fight off and on for a week. She was flustered. Why was her cousin considering letting Luther win? He was talking nonsense about leaving to keep everyone else safe! Out raged she slammed her fist into one of the supports for the windows. It crumbled under her force and the glass it supported shattered and fell as well.

Clark had been sitting in the chair by his computer in the grand hall. Staring at the statues of his Krypton parents… Kara had tried so hard to change his mind… but he was still sure at this point he was a bigger threat to Earth than its protector, and with the League in place it would be taken care of…

The sound of shattering glass caught his ear. Standing up so abruptly that the chair clattered to the icy floor, Clark raced toward the green house, toward Kara.

"What happened here?" he demanded, looking around to see if there was a threat.

Kara stood there, surprised, with how low Kal was feeling, she'd never imagined him rushing to her rescue.

"I was just mad…" she murmured, crossing her arms and turning her back to her cousin to protect herself from the emotional chill she expected to come.

Clark let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, shoulders relaxing as the adrenaline started to leave his system. "Be more careful." He stated gently, "Soon I won't be here to protect you.."

Her eyes widening, and tearing up with crystalline tears, her arms trembled and her hands clenched hard into her arms from their crossed position. She wasn't thinking, as she let her emotions have control, "KAL!" she screamed, dropping her arms down to her sides spread out as if to add force to her plea. "You think that YOU leaving is going to help any of us?" Her blond hair snapping with her movements as sharp as her words. "YOU are a HUGE IDIOT!" Her water blue orbs cracking with emotion as she desperately tried to get through to him, "You leaving won't protect us! STOP and THINK please Clark! How will this help me? Lois? Mr. and Mrs. Kent?" She was breathing hard as she took a halting step forward, "You say you care, but if you leave… it won't help any of us… It's not what we WANT!" Still breathing hard Kara took another step forward, "Kal, _Please_ …. Don't do this!"

Clark looked at his cousin… Kara, she was both younger and older than him. It was an odd feeling in that aspect. Right now she looked as if she the last daughter of Krypton were being torn apart from the inside just as the real planet had been… Clark wanted to go to her, to hug her and agree he was an idiot and wrong, that he was no threat to them. That he would always be there to protect them… He wanted to stop Kara's pain so badly, but he recalled how bad Wally and Diana had looked… and when Darkseid had taken control of him, how he'd hurt Kara herself…. How could he go to her now?

Taking a breath he leveled Kara's dishevel form with a sorrowful look, "Kara… I'm – I'm sorry." He clenched his fists trying to stand firm in his convictions, "I can't promise I won't hurt any of you in the future…" He was surprised that his voice didn't crack. He also was feeling the ragged emotions that Kara showed so easily. He just needed to hide them, if he fell prey to them now, he'd crumble and give in to stay… and then not today, not tomorrow, not next week but at some point he'd hurt those he cared about again… Maybe even kill someone! "No." He spoke hollowly. "Kara, I need to go."

He heard a strangled cry of what could be a wounded and dying animal as he turned his back. Talking to Kara only cemented his feeling to leave. He'd go before he let himself be talked out of his conviction… It was painful, but it needed to be done.

Kara had dropped to her knees and was sobbing, she couldn't stop him! He was leaving!

Superman walked back to the grand hall where he'd started at, there before him stood four of his teammates. The sounds of Kara's sobs echoed from where he'd left her, leaving all four faces to look at him disapprovingly.

"Mind telling us what's going on?" Diana asked stepping forward crossing her arms and pinning him with a look that demanded an explanation.

Clark sighed, he knew they weren't going to just let him take off for parts unknown… "I'm leaving Diana." He said evenly.

To be continued….


	13. Chapter 13 Superman's Choice

Loss of Control 

Chapter 13 Superman's Choice

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's Note: I had a request to try and find something that will show to separate scenes. ^_^ Plus I know that some typos have escaped into the published form. (Some chapters more than others. ) So after this chapter I'll try to go through and give another proof read. Thank you for the great feedback! ^^

"Leaving?" Diana repeated, raising an eyebrow as she took an authoritative step forward. "Why?"

Superman took a hand to massage his temples. He was getting such a headache. He was stressing out, he had to go, he couldn't let himself be talked out of this, but the challenging look Diana was giving him warned him that he was going to have a hard time meeting that goal. Kara's echoed cries were also grating at him. He had to explain quickly and then go.

"Because, it's safer for everyone if I leave and go far, far, away." He answered with a growl. He knew it was the first time his friends were hearing this, but two days of arguing with himself, and then a day and a half of arguing again with Kara really was putting his patience to the test.

Wally looked at him, "Sure about that?" he questioned. "It's easy to think you are safer far from those you care for, but here's the thing, the 'bad guys' we normally stop and deal with, don't care if you aren't around. They will go after what is important to you anyway."

Clark opened his mouth, "Yeah but that's wh-"

Wally was quick to use his speed to amplify his voice over Clark's to continue, "That's why leaving to protect others is always the worst idea you can have."

Batman was taking in the situation and listening to how Clark handled his quicker to engage friends, though what Wally was saying was also attacking excuse number three on why he and Wonder Woman could never date… The fact others would attack her to get to him… tossing that thought to the side he refocused on his usually non-brooding friend.

Clark took a calming breath and leveled Wally with a look, "You done?" shaking his head Clark continued, "I thought about that, and I know the League will be around to pick up the slack. So I won't have to worry, I'm trusting all of you." He gestured with both hands, hoping this would settle the discussion so he could just go. This was hard enough as it was.

"That is the most selfish thing I've ever heard you say." Bruce called out, hardly believing how stupid Clark sounded right now.

Freezing any movement Superman was even contemplating of making as his head snapped toward his friend and rival. " _What_?" he hissed hardly believing his ears, how could Batman say that? He was willing to give up his life here, his friends, family, Lois, to keep them all safe!

"You heard me." Bruce growled, stepping forward past Diana closer to the Man of Steel, his hand resting on the kryptonite pocket under his cape. "Of all the stupid, crack-pot ideas, Clark, I think this is the worst one I've ever heard come from your lips. Maybe Lex did more than take over your mind. He must have fried it too."

Clark locked a glare on the bat clad hero, "Do you wanna try saying that again?" he spat the words through tight lips, barley containing his temper. "I am being selfless in this sacrifice and you are trying to tell me that I am being selfish?" His hands shook at his sides as they clenched harder, "If I were selfish, I would stay and hurt everyone _yet again_!" He swung his arms out to punctuate the last word, sending his cape fluttering around him. "Don't you see, I need to do this! This is the second time I've been controlled, hurt people I care about – _**innocents**_!" He took several deep breaths to try and calm himself down. Now they should let him go.

Fire was watching not sure what to say, this was a senior member of the Justice League. She didn't feel she could really say anything… she felt someone squeeze her hand.

Wally was looking at her, leaning towards her he wishpered, "Why don't you go check on Super girl?"

She smiled relieved that she had something to do, Wally was so thoughtful! She quietly left to follow the sounds of sadness drifting to their ears from down the corridor.

Diana had her focus on her friend, "Kal, did you ever think to ask those you hurt if they want you to go?" She closed the gap fully between the two of them, uncrossing her arms, "Because, I don't want you to go." She breathed lifting a hand to rest against his shoulder.

Bruce watched the scene and appreciated the Princess' level head… though did her hand have to reach out to Clark so tenderly….

"Diana!" Clark was fast to jerk his torso back from her seeking touch. It was like she had burned him with the attempt. "I've made my decision." He said sternly, calming a bit now with more distance.

Wally refocused on the conversation, "I agree with Wonder Woman, I don't want you to go either." He was analyzing Clark's movements himself, there was so much fear… "You say you trust the League to protect your loved ones, why not trust us to come and knock you back to yourself if something like this ever happens again-"

"It's happened TWICE Flash, I can't risk it." He snapped not looking at his friends, they weren't getting it! The fools weren't getting it!

Diana looked back at the others, and was about to speak, when Flash raised a red gloved hand and shook his head before stating, "Ok, Sups. I understand."

Diana and Batman both pinned the speedster with looks that could kill. Diana started to step between Flash and Kal protectively, "Wally! How could-"

Simultaneously Bruce tried to get control, "Shut u-"

But Flash zipped past Diana next to Clark, "NO." he cut them off to get their attention, "Superman's right – AND" he continued quickly before they really did kill him, "with that logic, I'm leaving too then." Wally crossed his arms triumphantly as he leaned against Superman's shoulder like they were the two of them against the world, best friends.

Clark was taken aback. Diana and Bruce were both left speechless which was quite a feat in Batman's case. The look on the billionaire's face would have been priceless had the circumstances been better. Mouth dropped slightly open and eyes narrowed. Flash was always a wild card… and the crazy eight struck yet again.

"What?" Superman finally found his voice. Moving away from Wally's lean.

Wally rapidly caught himself before he would have stumbled from the loss of his 'travel buddy'. "Well, you said you lost your mind twice and hurt people, therefore the only answer is to leave to keep your friends safe. That being said, I was controlled by Grodd twice, and hurt Green Lantern and several innocent people," he started ticking off his experiences on his fingers, "then I was mind swapped with Luther and he ran amuck on the watch tower hurting most of the League, and then like you I was over taken by the comlink…" Looking at the four fingers in astonishment, Flash turned to look at Superman in what the others couldn't tell if it was honest, or mocked horror. "I've got two more times than you, so I'm technically overdue for this plan, I should diffidently go too."

No one moved or said anything for several beats, it was a standoff. If they had been in the wild west, a well-timed tumble weed would have set the mood perfectly.

"I agree with Wally and Clark too." Wonder Woman finally broke the silence, catching on herself, "I was under Roulette's and Lex's control. I should have to go too."

Batman grimaced, it was a good plan that Wally had concocted, he just hoped it would shock some sense into Clark's impermeably thick head, otherwise they would all have some explaining to do to get out of leaving… "That fits me too, Braniac, Harley Quin and Poison Ivy, and Lex." He wouldn't consent to leave, but at least he could show the naïve fool the error of his thoughts.

Diana turned her eyes on him for a heartbeat, a hint of curiosity igniting there, but then she refocused on Superman. Batman could tell this would probably be asked about later on.

Clark looked over the group around him. They were all telling him how they were over taken at times… "Stop it…" he muttered feeling like a scolded child. Lowering his gaze he tried to justify himself once more, "I know I'm not alone in this, but I am the strongest one here… so it's different for me."

Clark was so lost in his justification that he was unprepared for the uppercut that slammed into his lowered jaw and shot him up and several feet across the room.

Flash looked at where Clark was recovering to where Diana stood her fist still held in front of her from her attack. She looked so graceful, a Greek statue of power and control…

Bruce was eyeing the Princess, he had been ready to flash his glowing green kryptonite when the amazon knocked the Boy Scout across the room.

"If I recall, you once stated you were happy that we were on the same team because I held my own against you pretty well." She stated coolly as she returned to a more natural position. Walking forward, her boots slight scrape on the ice seemed suddenly amplified. Stopping a foot and a half away from her friend, Diana locked her cool baby blues on his half prone form.

Superman was resting his weight on his arms as he still half laid on the ice, his mind trying to make sense of Diana's actions and words.

"You're not the only one with strength as a gift." She gazed at him one hand sliding to her hip. "Captain Marvel, Captain Atom, Super Girl, and myself are just a few I can name that can stand toe to toe with you. No matter how good you are Kal, there is always someone equal to you, or better." She then held out a hand to help the Man of Steel up, "besides, strength isn't everything, others could help get you back just as easily…"

Looking at her hand Clark was unsure if he was ready to take it. Taking her hand felt like it would mean more than he was just getting help up, it felt like he'd be admitting he was wrong – that she was right…

Flash walked beside the dark haired heroine, "I may not have been able to take you down alone, but Sups, I did get the first control device out of your ear by myself."

"But you saw how badly you were hurt…" Superman mumbled the guilt flooding him once more.

"That only happened after you started targeting Diana." Wally flippantly tossed out with a wave of his hand.

Diana cringed and Bruce resisted the urge to smack his forehead.

Clark who had no memory of the fight himself, had not heard that particular detail before he'd flown off. " _I did what_?" he demanded on the precipice of a full blown panic. He'd targeted Diana? She had been super injured from before his fight with Flash if he understood right…

Wonder Woman was quick to drop down before Superman and take his face between her hands, locking his eyes with hers. "It wasn't you, each one of us had our own moments of being out of control – no one is blaming you." She was going to try her best to undo the damage Wally's comment had added to the situation. Her gaze honing in on the fears and guilt the mighty Kyptonian had. "The world and the League needs you Superman."

Batman tossed a stern look at a cringing with remorse Wally for his earlier loss of ground. He had been doing so well in this conversation until he dropped that fact… Kneeling down beside Wonder Woman, Batman finally pulled out the Kryptonite.

Clark felt the pain and weakness the instant the shard was removed from the led lined pouch. Grunting, Clark lifted a hand to his forehead wincing as his head swam and throbbed at once.

"I always carry this with me too, Clark. Had I gotten to you before Flash and Captain Marvel did, I would have used it." Point having been made, Batman replaced the deadly stone in its pocket.

Clark took a few breaths to steady himself as he felt his strength start to return. He stayed in a kneeling position, back arched and head lowered towards where his hands rested on the cold floor. His mind had been set on leaving, and while he still felt horrible for what he did, his choice or not, Clark was starting to see the merit in staying. Mind still reeling with regret for what he had done, he finally lifted his gaze and sat up. He could see the three friends that were arguing so hard for him to stay. Two of which were his victims.

Sighing Superman finally rose to his feet, "You win." He dusted some of the ice flakes off of himself and then shaking his head he let a small smile slide into place, "Thank you, and for what it's worth… I'm sorry."

Diana smiled relieved that they had convinced him. Wally was quick to grab Diana and Bruce and pull them along closer yet to Clark, "That's the way, group hug time!"

To be continued…..


	14. Chapter 14 Fear

Loss of Control

Chapter 14 Fears

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's Note: Well chapters 1-3 have been re proofed and edited for easier reading. If you happen to find any typos in chapters 1-3 at this point, please let me know as I am trying to polish. Sorry this one took a while. I had to really think what the next best play would be. I've decided to not have them follow the last four eps of Justice League Unlimited because we've seen them or have the ability to. Therefore the rest of this needs to take original turns. There may be some overlap as we continue but it will be minor. That being said I hope you like where I'm taking this.

Returning to the watch tower despite the victory in getting Clark to stay and return with them, each Justice League faded back into existence on the watch tower deep in their own thoughts.

The few moments of silent reflection was interrupted when Shayera had flown down to greet the returned team, and especially the before absent Man of Steel. "Good to see you back Superman!" she greeted with a smile.

Clark regarded his friend and sighed smiling at her welcome, "I'm fortunate to have so many strong allies and good friends." Shifting an invisible weight off of his shoulders Clark continued, "It's good to be back."

Shayera smirked mischievously, "The place wasn't the same without you. Just wait until I tell you about what happened while you were gone." She chatted, placing a hand on Clark's blue spandex clad shoulder and started leading him out of the room, "You see since everyone else was out or injured, Creeper tried to help out…"

The conversation faded from public hearing as the doors slide shut behind the pair.

Wally, Fire and Kara had also already made their way out to the rest of the tower, leaving only two of the team members left on the teleport port.

Diana shook her head, she knew John was still out on personal leave, and as much as her friend didn't want to admit it, she was still hurting… Then again, at least Hawkgirl had known what a romance with Green Lantern had been like. Glancing over at her favorite team member, Diana frowned, one day she really hoped that she could say the same. Sure they had shared a kiss, and a dance, but… the most annoying part was that he acted like he cared for her as more than a friend, and yet… he wouldn't allow himself the chance to try with her. She would push a bit, but she was – she hesitated to use the term afraid, but that really was exactly what it was. She was afraid that if she pushed too hard, that Bruce would pull away completely and they'd never have a chance to explore these feelings…

Bruce also watched the pair of teammates leave the room, there was still the hum of work being accomplished throughout the chamber. Civilian technicians were quietly going about their business. He could see that the wheels were turning in Diana's head again. He really hoped she wasn't going to push the subject of dating again… He wasn't going to let them go there. Couldn't she see it was for the best? Granted one of his reasons was sounding more and more hollow… but there were still three good ones left that stood between them! Deciding he needed to put some space between them he quietly turned and started to walk away. His cape gracefully flowing with his movements – it was liquid black ink swaying its way across the page.

Diana watched him go, half wanting to call out to him, but deciding better of it. If she wanted to get his attention, she'd have try something else… She'd have to try a new tactic. That thought in mind she too slipped out of the room heading in the opposite direction.

Kara had walked down the corridors and stopped at one of the picturesque windows. She stood there now staring out into space, her arms crossed, head tilted down. She had failed to stop Clark herself, the other members had managed to do so…. Her mission in coming to Earth had been to protect her 'baby' cousin… and yet she had failed and fell apart. Digging her nails into her arm, she clenched her fist, her arms trembling with the force she was putting into the grip. How could she have failed so spectacularly? She was still learning, still getting better and stronger… She needed to try even harder… Kara Zor El would not be so weak next time. Lifting her head, blue fire raged in her eyes. She would do better.

John was getting ready to leave the third moon of Galtos. He had worked out some frustrations and well, his stomach had worked out some of its own revenge for the inhuman drinks he'd tried to put in it the last couple days. Even after all of that, he still wasn't sure how he was going to deal with the break up… but he needed to start getting there. The time off he had requested, was starting to run out. He didn't know why he kept trying to go to this party moon when big changes hit his love life. This was Shayera's place… which was all the more reason he really should get off of it.

That thought in mind, John was preparing to fly away, to where he wasn't sure yet… But he needed to go somewhere… Looking up something caught his eye. There in the night sky, a ship was passing along the planet's gaseous lines of green and brown stripes, red laser beams firing at a perusing ship.

Shaking his head, John was going to ignore the entire thing and leave as planned, but a loud explosion caught his attention once more as the perusing ship lit up with fire resulting from a hit and came hurtling towards the moon's surface fast!

Calling on his power ring, John encased the flaming ship in a green orb, lowering it safely to the moon's surface. Civilians and tourists having already started to panic and scatter when the explosion first sounded. Hurrying, John made his way over to the decimated craft. The flames still licking at the metal unit. "Is anyone still alive in there?" John called, opening a door in the bubble for him to get closer to check for survivors.

The silver with a red striped ship was starting to melt and warp under the flames administrations. Covering his mouth and nose with his free hand, John narrowed his eyes, squinting into the smoke. A terrified cry in an unknown language filled his ears. Rushing forward John used his ring once more to form hands to start dismantling the ship. They were probing the wreckage, searching. The cry came again, though a bit weaker now. Finally breaking through, the hands pulled out an organic form. Not really taking any time to study it, John was quick to get him and whomever was in the glowing green hand of his power ring away from the flaming ship.

Once he was far enough away to satisfy his self-preservation instincts. John turned to look at the survivor he had salvaged. Gingerly he lowered the hand and released the life form inside.

Coughing, a taller than usual humanoid figure was revealed. She was 6 foot tall, with raven black hair that covered half of her head and swept down to her waist on the left side. She had large dark onyx eyes that sparkled in the distant light of what had been her ship. Her eyes were also larger than human life but just added to an exotic flare to her features. She was clad in a black uniform of sorts. It had a single wide black strap on her left shoulder and was strapless on the right. A dark marking on her skin danced acrossed the exposed light powder gray flesh of her shoulder. It was intricate as a spider's web. The outfit was obviously constructed to highlight the design. Her legs were encased in black pants that matched the tone of her top. There were a few pockets sewed into the sides and on the legs. Her feet were also encased in some form of shoe but it was hard to make out details in the light that was available.

John looked at the alien woman before him, she was defiantly striking. The way she was holding herself reminded him of a few other women he'd met over the years…

"Thank you for the rescue." She softly spoke breaking the ice.

John was grateful that the translation feature on his ring must have kicked in with her. "No problem." He answered, glancing back towards the still roasting ship. "What happened? Why were you chasing that ship?"

The girl tilted her head to the side inquisitively, causing her long trail of hair on the left side to sway with the movement. "Lantern, you do not recognize an officer of the Ummei System?"

John frowned and shook his head as he crossed his arms thoughtfully, "I'm not familiar with the Ummei System. Sorry."

The Ummei officer stepped closer to John, "I see, the birth mark on my shoulder destined me for it." She gestured to the black marks showcased on her right shoulder. I was chasing a criminal that had left the Ummei System without authorization. It is important that I bring this renegade back to face justice."

John cocked an eyebrow, "So what did this criminal do exactly except leave?" He asked staring at the mark on the girl's shoulder trying to see if it would reveal any secrets to him through the ring's abilities, apparently it was supposed to tell him a lot about the girl in front of him.

The female sighed and turned away from John, blocking his view with the long straight curtain of hair that was collected midway down into a lose pony tail of sorts. "By leaving, the criminal has caused great disorder, and chaos. He must be return." She then turned back to lock eyes with John again, "Surly that is enough…" seeing the look in John's eyes that screamed out of his soul how crazy he was thinking that reasoning was, she sighed, "Lantern, it is not your concern. You saved my life. That is enough." She gave him a smile, "You're part in this is destined to end here." With that she turned once more and started to walk away.

John was still just staring at her trying not to let his face give away any of his thoughts, but his rebellious spirit kicked in at idea of being controlled by destiny and thus ignited his anger. While he was careful to not let his face or body language show it, she'd seen the hatred for that idea in his eyes. Plus the idea that the guy had just wanted to leave and was now being hunted as a criminal was also a little crazy… Still, this girl had no way to get off of this moon…

"Wait!" He called out, raising a hand to help get the female's attention. "Do you have a way to get back home?"

The alien officer turned to regard the Lantern thoughtfully. "You do not approve of my search, but you still offer to help?" She asked eyeing him, her movements were slight but measured. She looked more predatory in this moment than she had earlier.

John sighed, rubbing the back of his head, she had a point. But he still had four days to kill and well, he might as well see the lady home. It put more distance between him and Earth which is what he wanted for the next couple days more at least. He hoped he could have answers by then, now if he only knew the question he was trying to answer, that would help even more. "Yeah… yeah I guess I am."

Relaxing the lanky officer closed the gap between the two of them stopping a few feet away. "Then, as one officer to another Lantern, I accept." She smiled again, bending her knees a taste to better lock eyes with John.

"I don't think I caught your name." He commented still watching her movements.

"Ah, you may call me Pa'rina." She smoothly answered. "And what would you have me call you Lantern?" she asked her eyebrow arched in mock upset.

"John." He replied, realizing he had failed to offer his own name too. Idiot. "Shall we go?" He asked to change the subject.

"Yes, let's. My home is in the Epsilon Quadrant, Ummei System, the fourth planet- Makeru, sixth moon."

John cocked his own eyebrow, "You're a long way from home aren't you?" He asked.

"My ship was good… unfortunately, it no longer is. Thus was its destiny." She easily answered with a shrug.

"You really seem to like to toss that word around a lot." John mentioned powering up his ring to encase both of them in green for travel. "Destiny."

"That is because everything is preordained Lantern. There are no surprises or mistakes. Even all of this was preordained."

"Right…" John shook his head. He had to end up going on a random trip with a tall, gray looney-toon…

Bruce hadn't gotten far in his walk on the watch tower when he got a call on the new communicator. "Master Bruce," Alfred's dignified voice patched through, "You may wish to return to Gotham. Young Master Tim may need your assistance."

Batman frowned, what was Tim up to? "I'll be right there."

"Very good Sir."

To be continued….


	15. Chapter 15 Journeys Begin

Loss of Control 

Chapter 15 Journeys Begin

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Author's Note: I know a lot of you keep asking for more romance with the pairings. The best I can do right now is start these stubborn men through crucibles that are going to start shaking their obstacles to those relationships. ^_^ And No I haven't forgotten about Lex but he's going to be quiet for a while, just focused on Braniac…. He'll be back. ^_~ Also school will be starting up soon. Therefore updates may need to be put on hold or slow wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down.

John had never been to the Epsilon quadrant before. The bright blue hyper giant star shined and crackled in the distance as its seven satellites silently moved around it. The immense size of the blue star several hundred times the size of Earth's medium sized yellow sun, was breath taking.

Arriving at the fourth planet – Makeru, twelve moons of various shapes and colors danced around the gas giant. The bright brown and blue rings that also surrounded the planet gracefully painted the dark vacuum of space with color and elegance. It was a stark contrast to the red and yellow gases that composed the planet's thick ever moving atmosphere below.

Pa'rina glanced at her travel companion. "It never gets old." She reverently pointed out.

"What doesn't?" John questioned, not sure what she was referring to, when she had just spoken that statement after a long period of silence.

"Seeing the order of each star fulfilling its purpose, shining as it was meant to, and the planets following their preordained path around its parent star." She answered as if it should be obvious.

Green Lantern scoffed, turning his attention back to the planet they were headed to. "But not all planets submit to that fate." He pointed out. GL was not one to believe or follow fate, and the belief that it was absolute bothered him, that part of him wanted to win this debate – prove the alien officer who was so obsessed with destiny that she was wrong.

"True, some planets are not fated to experience such grandeur, and are forced to live or die alone…" Pa'rina breathed out, her large eyes starting to shimmer with a hint of moisture that she rapidly blinked away. "There it is! Inochi!" her tone shifted to all business as she pointed out the sixth moon.

John frowned, the look in her eyes a moment ago, the tone of her voice… there was something there. Maybe she wasn't as much of a nutcase as he originally thought…

The moon was an exotic earth. The land forms that could be seen were foreign in shape, but the blue oceans and white clouds gave the moon a homey feel. It would host breathable air to guests from John's blue marble as well if they were to ever visit.

Entering the atmosphere of the mid-sized moon, heat collected around the pair, but thanks to Green Lantern's shields, it did not bother them. Coming down through the cotton candy clouds that were not as thick as they seemed once up close, the continents were better revealed.

Pa'rina looked upon the face of Inochi, her home world. Yes, she would need to leave again soon, but it gave her great pride and awe to gaze upon the face of her world from space. It was a majestic sight she'd never tire over.

"Over there." She pointed a slender gray finger towards Daran the Inochi's ruling district. Her heart pounding, Pa'rina continued to help guide their decent.

The pair soon found themselves above a city. Tall towers reached up toward the heavens, their basic structure design in hexagons. Citizens, some with families and some without, moved about their business below. All of them hosting various grey tones to their skin. Though the design and colors of hair and outfits were rather varied. It seemed that Pa'rina's outfit was that of a standard officer, as there were a few that matched her hair style and dress below that were 'keeping the peace.' One thing John was able to hone in on immediately once they started their final decent, was that all the people seemed to host a black design on their body in some location.

Once they landed on the green paved street, Pa'rina seeing John's focus decided to enlighten him, "It's their mark of destiny. The placement is as important as what the lines in the mark do. A line reader can almost tell you your entire future from birth."

John turned away from his visual scrutiny of several of the populace, noting some had the mark on their heads, hands, or even their legs or backs. "Almost?" John asked surprised. If it was 'destined,' then wasn't there no room for error?

She nodded, "there are some points in each life that even a mark reader cannot fully understand. Some believe they are areas of freewill. Others believe they will just be revealed in time and there is no choices in life at all, only purpose."

John leveled her with a look, leaning toward her slightly to really get a good look at her face when he asked his next question. "Which do you believe?"

Pa'rina smiled at John and inclined her head in gratitude. She was completely ignoring his question, "Thank you Lantern for seeing me home. I will be able to get what I need to continue my mission from here."

John studied her, realizing that her smile was not reaching her eyes and she was saying indirectly that he wasn't going to get an answer to his question. The unwelcome nagging feeling of gilt goateed and gnawed at him. He was so determined to win a philosophical battle with this stranger, had he been responsible for hitting a button? He wasn't ready to go home just yet anyways.

"I still have a bit of time, why don't I accompany you a bit further?"

Her eyes widened comically, her mouth forming a small o shape. "You really are a strange one Lantern, but if you wish to continue to accompany me, you may." Her face then slid back into its normal cool mask. "I must report to King Xi'ter about my set back."

The green and black clad hero nodded, giving a small playful bow to try and lighten the mood, "Then lead the way."

The pair made their way through the city streets.

….

Batman was in a very bad mood. He had only been gone for 5 hours. Helping to deal with Superman and well, brooding… Yet, within that five hours, all hell had broken loose.

The batsignal had shined within the third hour he had been gone. Tim had seen it and knowing that Batman was doing league business had contacted the watch tower. Shayera had taken the call and mentioned that Batman was helping to find out what was wrong with Superman and possibly take him out. Bruce was going to have a strong word with the Thanagarian later.

Thus no one had bothered to contact Bruce directly! Tim had made the call to at least go to the meeting point and find out what Commissioner Gordon wanted.

When Robin had arrived, Gordon was standing there waiting as he should have been, it looked fine… Tim had no idea that he was about to bite off more than he bargained for.

Joker had taken control of the police building and had made the Commissioner summon Batman.

A shoot out had started with Tim's appearance. Robin to his credit had done exactly what he was supposed to. He kept himself alive, got to a safe spot for a few moments and tried to radio Alfred.

Tim had only opened the channel before Harley Quin had managed to interrupt the Boy Wonder.

She had knocked him in the head with her mallet so hard that he'd not only been tossed quite a ways away from the starting point, but the com had fallen out of his ear. The clown prince himself had held up a hand to halt any gun fire his goons might have fired and stepped on the com, while glaring down at the Boy Blunder.

Tim had laid still until Joker leaned down to grab ahold of the 'unconscious' bird. Then he had kicked the clown in the face! Taken by surprise, Tim was able to get some distance between himself and the Joker. Tossing out a couple of batarangs he was doing a decent job of handling the ambush. He was a smart young man and while he wasn't as much of a gymnast as Dick had been, Tim was skilled in calculating and outsmarting his opponent. Things might have even been ok….

However, after a good hour of fighting, five adults to one pre-teen. That was when Harley followed Joker's order to use the tech…. With a salute the jester had turned on and aimed an experimental weapon that Joker had acquired…. The resulting explosion could be seen like sadistic fireworks across the city.

Batman had been en route, when the explosion occurred. Rushing over to check the damage, the entire roof top of the building was engulfed by a strange blue worm hole. It swirled around a dark nothingness… Tossing a line into the hole from his batplane, Batman watched to see the result. He seemed able to put the cable in and pull it out…. Checking his on flight equipment, he found a small drone. Perhaps he could lower it in and see what he could find out? Tim had better be ok. Plus, Bruce had no idea who else might have been caught up in this thing…

…

An alert was brought up on the watch tower. Triggered by the news cast on channel 52. Several of the members had gathered around to see the stunning footage. "Disaster has struck Gotham Police  
Headquarters tonight. According to evacuated police, the Joker and four of his gang members along with Harley Quin had taken the building hostage earlier today to try and get at Batman." The well-dressed feminine news anchor continued to report. "According to sources, Batman did not arrive until after the explosion, that resulted in – what exactly is it Jean?" The anchor questioned not even sure what to make of the swirling blue light with black hole on the top of the building.

"No one is too sure yet Ronda." Jean answered as he appeared at a desk on the screen. "But authorities are asking that everyone stay –"

When most of the members heard it was Gotham, they were content to watch or didn't dare to try and help. Batman was very particular about that city…. He had his Bat clan and heaven help anyone else that entered his domain…

Diana looked on and clenched her fist. She knew Bruce was territorial… Watching the footage of some supposed experts arguing exactly what that thing was up on the building as the Batplane was lowering a drone tied to a line into the vortex…. He could scare most help away, but she knew a few that like her wouldn't care if he was upset. This was big, and she wasn't going to let him deal with this alone. Touching the new comlink in her ear, Diana started to quickly make her way toward the teleporting room… She'd teleport the lot of them right on his plane!

…

A majestic building loomed before the pair. It was the only building that did not follow the hexagon base. It was long and tall with a rectangular form. It was made of polished black marble. The front had a large gate that lead to an exotic garden. There were many plants that John had never seen on Earth. Two large doors stood at the entrance, surrounded by intricate arches and pillars. The white lines in the marble splitting and moving across the shiny black surface as a reflection of the dark destiny marks that spider webbed across the people of Inochi.

Walking up to the palace Pa'rina walked right past the guards. The only difference between her officer attire and the guards were the additional weapons that were at the guards sides.

In what must have been the throne room, a very muscular male sat. His gray toned skin was a shade darker than Pa'rina's he was shirtless but well built. His anatomy was very humanesque. A large black tattoo like design was etched across the man's entire chest and shoulders. It was very intricate and spider webbed out. His forearms were encased in gauntlets of white with gold circles highlighting their center. He was clad in a white pleated loin cloth with a gold seal at the center, much as the Egyptian fashion would have been. Boots laced up his legs matching the outfit. On his head he had a full head of dirty blond hair that was trimmed short only going by his ears and just enough to not be fuzz. His own large black eyes locked on the pair that entered.

Pa'rina didn't miss a beat as she strode forward and then dropped to one knee before him. "Lord Xi'ter," she started reverently, her eyes lowered, still bowing. "I have returned with a setback. The fugitive Ja'red destroyed my vessel. This Lantern has escorted me back to get another ship to try once more."

John had also bowed fallowing Pa'rina's example, but sneaking a look at the king he noted that the royal looked less than pleased. A frown marred the king's face and one of the medium gray hands on the throne's armrest tightened. John had to wonder if the king was upset at their presence or the news.

"You appear well." He stated with measured words. His lips pursed in anger.

"That is correct my liege. " Pa'rina answered. "Once more it was fate that sent this Lantern to aide me."

Standing up roughly, Xi'ter looked at the kneeling officer before him. His eyes had only momentarily flickered to John's direction before centering on his subject once more. His eyes tracing her form – taking her in. "Stand." He commanded swallowing.

Both John and Pa'rina did so, Pa'rina was careful to keep her eyes cast downwards.

John watched curious, the king looked shaken and was perhaps trying to regain his composure. The easily 6.5 foot man descended the stairs and closed the distance that separated him from the female that stood before the throne. He circled her, eyes still assessing, arms crossed behind his back. "There is no need for you to leave." Xi'ter murmured gently, "I will send another."

Pa'rina's head snapped up, her dark eyes flashing with heat. "No."

Xi'ter tilted his head in mild amusement, "No?" he asked. "I think that you forget with whom you are speaking to."

"I have not my lord. You are Lord Xi'ter ruler of Inochi, the 6th moon of Makeru." She recited standing at attention.

Xi'ter nodded, allowing a hand to lightly trace her cheek and marked shoulder, "Then do not tell me no…" There was almost a pleading to the king's voice. John was quickly coming to the conclusion that the king's earlier displeasure and upset was actually worry… How many times had he worried for Shayera and Vixen? He had to wonder then did the King care this much for all his subjects or just this one?

Pa'rina closed her eyes and had for a flutter of a moment leaned into Xi'ter's touch, but then shifted herself to just pull her flesh millimeters from beyond his fingertips. "This is my job. My destiny." She stated locking eyes with the ruler.

Xi'ter sighed and removed his hand, placing it once more behind his back as if to keep himself from trying to touch her yet again. Silence was palpable in the room as there was an inaudible show down waging between the pair without a single word spoken. After several long moments, the king finally broke the quiet, "And what of the rest of your destiny?" His ebony eyes seeking, "Is that not of equal- if not greater importance?" his voice carried over smoothly, a tinge of emotion edging his words. Whether it was hurt, or hope John couldn't be sure.

"I cannot abandon this mission. You know that my lord." Pa'rina coldly replied looking off. A tinge of moisture in her left eye catching John's attention before it hid behind her hair with the movement.

Xi'ter seemed to be giving up, as he turned and ascended the few stairs back to his throne. He waved a hand dismissively without turning around. "Then go and retrieve the fugitive safely."

"Thank you." Pa'rina bowed at the waist and then turned herself to exit the hall. John following after her.

…

Bruce was getting flustered… He didn't know what this thing was, if Tim was still alive or not, and how long this thing would stay open. The drone he sent in, so far he was only seeing darkness…. He clenched his fist, waiting was normally something he applauded himself with being good at… tonight he was struggling to do so.

Just as he was about ready to try and fiddle with other things on the plane to try and let him feel like he was doing something, an image appeared on the screen. It was staticy and fuzzed in and out. It was hard to get more than a few seconds of a clear picture, but it appeared to be somewhere with ground, and light, and possibly plants?

He tried to maneuver it but it seemed to be stuck. The cord tugged three times. Someone grabbed the cord? Could it be Tim? Or someone else? Bruce swallowed as he debated, he decided after a few moments of hesitation to pull it back out and see what he brought back. Hopefully it would be Tim… If not he might have a new problem on his hands.

Watching as the cable started to wind back into the pulley system his plane housed, Batman stood at the open cargo doors, the jets below pumping out just enough thrust to let it hover above the anomaly. The wind whipping around the Dark Knight, the cape billowing behind him.

Inch by inch the cable was winding back up.

A flicker of color caught Bruce's attention behind him, on edge and not expecting friendly guests, Batman whirled around and swung a strong punch at the incoming figures. His gloved hand connected with something and stopped hard.

Actually looking, Batman's eyes widened. Superman held his friend's hand firmly and smirked at him. "So this is how you chose to greet me, after all that work to get me to stay?" He asked.

Diana and Flash stood there too.

Bruce pulled his fist back, Clark easily letting it go. "You know Gotham is mine!" he bit annoyed.

Flash looked at him shrugging with his per usual easy going smile. "You seemed to have a bit of a problem here… so we came to help. You're welcome."

"You're help's NOT needed. Now get out!" Batman snapped turning away roughly from the group.

Diana shook her head, "I'll believe it when I see this closed and everyone home safe."

Bruce was about to reply, when there was a change from below. Looking down, a figure was holding onto the drone and coming out of the darkness. Squinting to get a better look, he could just make out the sound of laughter? And green hair… Bruce's heart sank it wasn't Tim…

….

Once they had left the palace, John finally convinced himself to ask. A dark eyebrow arched in curiosity. "So what's with you and the king?"

Pa'rina stopped walking mid step and stood straight, silently trying to choose her words carefully and control her emotions that started to try and spill across her face.

John had continued walking a few steps past the taller girl when he realized she no longer walked beside him. Turing back towards her he looked at her with curious interest. He watched as the corners of her mouth twitched in a war to keep them were they currently sat or in a more down turned position. Her arms that had been by her side had moved to slide into a more protective crossed position. Apparently he had struck a nerve…. "If you don't want to talk about it –" he tried to give her an out.

"Lord Xi'ter has asked me to wed him." She answered with less emotion than her form obviously wanted to put into those words.

John tilted his head, curious to know why this upset the girl so, but afraid to upset her further. "And you don't want this?" He asked carefully measuring his words as to try and no upset the officer further.

The light gray skinned woman shook her head vehemently 'no' her arms clenching further against her form as she tried to keep herself in check. "-not that…" she forced out in a shaky breath. Giving up on sharing for the moment, she quickly started to walk forward once more, "If you are coming Lantern, then come. I need to get a new ship for my continued mission."

Seeing that the conversation was done, Green Lantern, decided to let it drop for now, but perhaps the girl wasn't as big of a believer in destiny as he thought…. Or there was more to this impromptu mission than he was led to believe.

…

They had carefully pulled the Joker up the rest of the way, and had swiftly tied him up so as to not let the Clown Prince cause any further trouble.

Bruce glared at his foe, "I'm only going to ask this once." He stalked towards the helpless prisoner. Which was impressive given that there wasn't much room to move around with five adults in his currently closed plane. "What is that?" he leaned in his face inches away from Joker's, his gloved finger jabbing towards the floor where the vortex still sat.

Laughter filled the room, "Why don't you jump in and find out?" Joker shot back.

Batman grabbed the clown by the ropes that bound his torso, lifted him up a taste off the chair, and then slammed him back against the side door to the plane, "Why don't you?" He hissed in dark promise.

Gulping audibly, the Joker sighed with a smile, "Touchy."

Seeing the dark glove heading toward the button to open the door, the criminal mastermind was quick to continue, "Okay – OKAY! Keep your cape on!" He gripped, "It was a new kind of weapon. I didn't know what it would do-but" he continued quickly seeing the growing displeasure forming on Batman's face. "It seems to be a gate way to somewhere."

"And Robin?" He demanded, not happy with the direction it was going.

"Ahh the bat brat? He fell through with the rest of us. Though he didn't stick around." Joker shrugged grinning. He was enjoying the torment he could taste under the surface of his nemesis.

The other three Justice League members had stood by watching quietly, allowing Batman to do what he does best, get information…

A sensor started to beep insistently. Looking at the monitor beside him, Wally noted what the on board computer had noticed, "The anomaly is collapsing!"

"Now, now Batsy, Batsy, if you hurry you might be able to save your little bird…."

Glaring at the gloating clown, Batman took a breath and turned a smile. At Batman's smile, Joker's fell to a cautious frown. "I think you have a point." He stated. Joker thought those words and that smile were the scariest things he'd ever witnessed.

Without warning, Batman slammed his hand on the door open button. The side door whooshed open. The wind forcing the others back a step at the unexpected gale force. Joker and Batman who had been leaning on the door, both fell into the rapidly closing vortex below.

Seeing him fall, Diana felt her heart skip a beat. NO. Not thinking, she forced her feet to move, rushing toward the open doors she swan dived out after the pair and slipped into the vortex herself.

Superman recovering from the sudden changes, had tried to at least stop Diana, but he grasped at air where the vortex had once been… Flash looked out at him from the plane, his eyes wide and mouth slightly open in a frown… They were gone…

To be continued…


	16. Chapter 16 Confessions and Problems

Loss of Control 

Chapter 16 Confessions and Problems

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Two days they had been on the new ship, and two days they had failed to find the 'criminal'… Small talk had been made, but John had avoided the larger subjects to see if Pa'rina would bring it up on her own. She hadn't. "So," he started trying to break the ice. "How did this man we are after create chaos as you said? When we were at Inochi it looked to be peaceful."

Pa'rina hit a couple of buttons on the dash board and then sighed, "Ja'red is not a normal citizen." She breathed out. "His mark of destiny places him as heir to the throne."

John raised an eyebrow, "What about Xi'ter's children?"

Shaking her head, the long black pony tail swayed with the movement. "We are bound to the lives our mark gives us. Even if Xi'ter had a child it does not make the child a king."

"So Xi'ter has no children?" John cocked an eyebrow.

"No." Looking out the window, Pa'rina adjusted another dial.

"Do you love him?" John asked.

Pa'rina's head snapped over to the African American eyes wider than he gave her face credit to be able to do.

Laughing John locked eyes with her, "Well?"

She eyed him, before narrowing her own eyes in thought. "You certainly are interested in my affairs Lantern…" She pointed out. Turning to look at him arms crossed she raised an eyebrow, "Why don't you go in the hot seat for a bit?" Raising to her height she moved closer to him, "What about you? John? Do you have someone that you love? Is it simple? Easy to talk about?" Each question she stepped closer, backing John into a corner. That predator he'd glimpsed on the party moon emerging once more.

It suddenly occurred to him, that this girl was an officer but when he'd met her she had no weapons. He had assumed they had perished in the fire…. But she hadn't gotten any new weapons at Inochi either… Was she the weapon herself?

"Why so quiet Lantern?" She asked tilting her head to the side. Her half head of hair raised letting the hair fan itself across her face. She normally had an innocent doe like appearance with her large eyes, in this moment she was striking him as a ghost or monster from a Japanese horror film. Her large dark eyes peeking through the hair that spilled onto her face and ashen skin. A shiver went up his spine.

Just then, Pa'rina righted her face, running a hand through her hair to straighten it back into place. She regarded him coolly, the innocent doe again. "It's not an easy set of questions is it?" She asked before moving back to where she had been previously giving him some space.

John reflected on what she had said. She was right, these were hard questions to answer. But she had either calmly answered everyone, or side stepped the question politely for the last three days… "You're right." He finally broke the ice, just looking straight ahead.

His quiet partner on the ship turned her head to eye him without feeling. Waiting to see if he understood.

"I took some time away from my sector of the universe because I –" he swallowed. He hadn't made peace with this yet. It was hard to speak of, but well if he answered maybe he could get her to answer. It seemed that the King really liked this girl, and if he understood right, so did she… so why did she get so upset about it? "I messed up." He finished putting his head in his hands for a moment. Taking some time to breathe and organize his thoughts.

Pa'rina turned fully from what she was doing to watch him and listen. Giving him the quiet and space he needed to process and word what he wanted to say. "My girlfriend Mari- she dumped me."

Tilting her head in confusion Pa'rina still said nothing, but filed a note of something to ask him after he finished.

"You see another girl I used to date, Shayera returned and I have been watching over her – caring for her… and it got to the point Mari ended it." Moisture in his own eyes, John chanced a glance at the officer beside him.

"So," she started seeing he wasn't continuing, "This Mari, she threw you to the ground and ended her life?" she asked slightly confused but trying to stay detached.

John looked at her, "No." he frowned wiping the tears that were ready to fall away from his eyes. "She ended our relationship." While the ring's translation was fantastic there are always some words and terms that just don't translate well, apparently these were some perfect examples of that.

Pa'rina nodded now understanding. "I see." Then she dismissively returned to monitoring the system looking for the successor to the throne Ja'red.

John regarded her, "That's all you wanted to know?" he asked surprised. Looking at the girl in disbelief. She didn't want to ask him a zillion questions.

"Did you want to say more?" She asked while working. "I can tell this is painful for you to discuss. Also it's really none of my business unless you invite me in." She turned her head from its inclined position closer to a screen to lock eyes with the human. "So do you wish me to ask?"

John looked at her with new respect. "Pa'rina." He started smiling at her through his stress, "I'm sorry. I was pushing because my relationship is well, a mess, and yours looks so clean cut. The King loves you, you love him right?"

"No, it's not as clean cut as you think." She stated softly before turning her eyes back to the monitor. "Found him!"

…

The world was unfocused, and bright lights of various colors swirled around. A roaring thunderesque sound filled their ears. Batman held tight to the ropes of his captive not willing to release them. After what felt like hours of falling in the void, the pair hit a body of water with a splash. The liquid was quick to rush into their ears and nose. Reacting quickly, Bruce pushed off with the force of a kick in the water and swam the two of them back to the surface.

Taking a deep breath, the Dark Knight started to tread water while still keeping the Clown Prince close. Taking stalk of his surroundings, Batman spotted some land and headed in that direction.

Catching his breath, Batman lifted a dripping gloved hand to his ear, "Robin?" he called into the comlink, "Come in Robin."

Joker coughed a bit from his prone position on the ground, before he darkly chuckled, "I don't think he can hear you Bats."

Ignoring the jab, Batman tried a bit longer without success. Growling at being unsuccessful. "Where is he?" he bit, lifting the Joker up from the ground and leveling him with a look that could curdle milk.

The white faced criminal smirked at his foe. "Well, I would love to help… but Batsy, Batsy… How can I when I am-"

Deciding to give Joker some incentive to talk, Bruce slammed him down to the brown sand and pressed his foot on the clown's chest. "OW!"

"Where." He narrowed his eyes.

Coughing a bit once more, Joker looked up from his back at him, "I think the better question is where are we?"

Frowning, Bruce finally took a moment to really look around. It was the coast, but deep brown sand was beneath their feet, the water was also a dark turquoise color. The Sky above them taking on a deeper blue than was normal – that is on Earth.. Behind him, there were several tall plant like structures. These plants were brown on their trunks but held more pink and purple leaves and vine like structures.

"See we aren't in Kansas anymore Toto!" Joker laughed, loving the fact that he could annoy Batman.

Turning his eyes back on Joker, Batman yanked him back to his feet, "We'll just have to look for him then." Shoving the Joker forward he commanded, "Now walk."

"Hey, take it easy Bats!" Joker snapped as he started to comply. He didn't want to stay here anymore than the Bat did.

….

They landed on a world John did not wish to ever return to in the Cygnus system. "Of course, a runaway prince would come to Warworld… " He grumbled flustered.

Pa'rina tossed a questioning look at her temporary travel companion. "What's wrong with this world?" She rolled her cobalt eyes, "It's just another party planet, right?"

John turned to look at the girl, "You really don't know what this place is do you?"

At her stern look, John caved, "This is a fighting area where prisoners fight to the death for entertainment…"

Cocking an eyebrow the smoke tinted woman shook her head in disappointment, "Ja'red is not proving himself to be a good king…"

John frowned following her off the ship, onto the dusty surface below the turquoise sky. "Not that I disagree but what else has Ja'red done?"

Pa'rina walked quickly, but started to list the infractions to him, "Mannerless, abusive, killed 13 officers on security detail, ran off, stole a ship, and has been going from one party planet to the next… blew up my ship…"

Hearing all of this, John increased his speed to try and get in front of the girl, "And you want to bring this guy back, to make him _King_?"

Looking off, Pa'rina exhaled, "It is his destiny…."

Without thinking, John grabbed Pa'rina's ashen shoulders and shook her a few times as he tried to get through to her, "Destiny or not, this killer is going to be your king if you let it! Fight it! Why give in to Destiny?!"

The initial surprise warring off as annoyance took over, Pa'rina lifted her hands and smacked his hands off of her form. "Do not presume to touch me." She bit. Shoving past him, she turned her head slightly enough to just see him from over her shoulder, her own form squared in tense anger, "Thank you for your help. Our alliance ends here."

John stood there open mouthed at how quickly that had deteriorated, as he watched her walk off alone. Sighing, John turned the opposite way, it's not like he had any responsibility to her. In fact, he needed to return in another day or two to the Justice League and face Mari and Shayera…. He still hadn't even dealt with his feelings. He had just been using Pa'rina's romance issues and mission to hide from his own…

Looking downward, John realized that he had nothing to distract him now…. He headed into the small town maybe he'd find a place to eat and think for a bit…

…

They had been moving through the 'forest' for a time. Strange creatures had been sighted but seemed skittish enough to easily be frightened away.

"Did I ever tell you about the one where the cat ate the canary?" Joker asked loudly. "It was a real classic, you see..."

Bruce was tuning out his captives constant idle prattle. It was just white noise… He was worried, Tim was a good partner and smart kid, but he had no way of knowing where his junior partner was in this place…. Who knows if they even landed in the same part of this world? They could be continents away! Not to mention that he was stuck here with the Joker of all people! Taking out a bola he grabbed his undesired companion and shoved him against a nearby tree. Using the bola to secure him to the plant.

"Hey? What's the big idea?!" Joker gripped as he struggled, "You can't just leave me here!"

Batman resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm going to climb to the top of the tree, get our bearings."

Not paying attention to the Joker's continued complaints or commentary, Bruce started to climb the tree. Arriving at the top, He looked out across the horizons. Bruce could see the turquoise ocean they had left behind. Shining in the red sunlight. He was half glad that Superman wasn't here. His powers would have been useless here.

The forest stretched on for miles in the other three directions, but there was a large mountain to the East. Perhaps Tim would think to head there. Nodding to himself, Bruce was about to descend when Joker's words registered in his thoughts.

"Hey now, I asked for help, not sharp pointy things in my face! What kind of idiot are you anyways?"

So they weren't alone… Careful not to make any noise, Batman started to move down the tree toward the ground. He wanted to get a visual on the situation.

There below them was a group of humanesque figures. They were red, with two sets of arms. Dark hair hung from their heads. It looked like they hadn't bathed in a while. Several tools were strapped to their forms. They spoke in a tongue Bruce didn't know. Communication would be difficult. The four armed party of aliens seemed to be discussing something. They were gesturing a lot with their arms as they spoke.

Joker not liking the situation he was in, started to yell and scream at the group. "Would you stop talking gibberish and GET ME OUT OF HERE!?" Breathing hard, Joker was having a hard time controlling himself, "Don't you understand a word I said? Or are you too dumb!?" growling the Clown prince was getting more agitated. That was until one of the red men below nodded his head and approached the out raged criminal. "Finally!" Joker grouched as he was cut from the tree. But his original ropes were still intact.

Once off the tree, one of the men pointed, "Uhuga-na." he barked shoving the captive forward a taste.

"What?!" Joker turned glaring, "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Uhuga'na." a second red man stated firmly. Pointing forward again.

"No." Joker growled eyes narrowed angrily.

The next events happened quicker than Batman expected. One of the men lowered their primitive looking spear to the Joker's form and a light show escaped from the tip. The sound of electricity filled the area, quickly joined by Joker's cries of pain.

Batman winced as it was over quickly.

Joker stood panting, his back smoking a bit from the energy.

"Uhuga-na." was stated once more.

Breathing heavily, Joker started walking forward, plotting his revenge on this humanoid red ants…

…

He didn't know what he was eating. He didn't think he wanted to know either… John stared at the strange cross between spaghetti and shellfish in front of him. He wasn't even sure if he'd call it good or not. So lost in his thoughts he didn't really notice. Eating was more mechanical. His mind was on what it should have been all week. His relationships…

Mari had said Shayera always came first… He wanted to deny it - say it wasn't true… but what if it was… He recalled watching Flash pull out Shayera's chair and his hand's easily touching her shoulders. He was so upset… When Shayera was hurt, he had rushed to her. Not to Mari. He knew that in the future he was to have a son with Shayera… that thought that he and Shayera were destined… recalling how he had lost it with Pa'rina and shaken her… He was really trying to fight destiny not Pa'rina. The female alien's belief that no action was their own, that it was all preordained, it set him off. He was metaling in her affairs trying to push his beliefs on her, because if he could win that fight, maybe… just maybe he could defeat destiny.

Stabbing one of the red sauce covered shells, he listened to the hard crunch that resulted from the action. He stared at the fork stuck in the shell, Mari… She knew who she was. She knew how to build him up with her moves and words. She was a catch, a strong woman. Beautiful, smart, formidable in battle and loyal. He had chosen her. He had decided even with Shayera's return to stay with the African protector… and yet she had called things off with him. Was it destiny's fault? Destiny trying to make Warhawk a reality in the future?

Pa'rina's shocked face flashed back in his mind before the cold detached predatory look side over her features in its place. He had lashed out at her – at destiny. Sighing, guilt hit his system. He really should apologize to Pa'rina. She seemed to be really distressed over her matters of the heart. What was he not understanding? Pa'rina seemed to like the king and it was painfully obvious that the king liked her… was it something to do with destiny that was keeping them apart too? But Pa'rina had latched onto following her destiny so tightly… why doesn't she fight it?

Thinking of Shayera and her graceful wings, John started to push the food around on his plate leaning his head on his other hand lost in thought. He still found Shayera attractive, he finally admitted. However, was it his choice or destiny controlling him?

Getting up he roughly pushed his chair out with the force of him standing. Paying for the meal he had hardly eaten, John turned to head out the door. He'd go home. He'd rejoin the league and try and sort himself out there. Nodding to himself John headed out of the eatery.

Back outside on the dismal streets he noticed the sound of trumpet like instruments being played. Hordes of aliens were all rushing towards the colosseum. Stopping in his tracks, that nagging feeling of shame hit him once more. He really should find Pa'rina and at least apologize before he goes.

Another thought bit at the back of John's mind. It bothered him, if Ja'red, the prince Pa'rina was after, had killed 13 guards…. How did Pa'rina think she could take on this man on her own… the look in King Xi'ter's eyes at the palace… there was worry there. What if this killer took Pa'rina down too?

Heading towards the arena John decided to keep a look out for the gray tinted maiden. Hopefully he could catch up to her.

…

Batman had been following the group through the trees for the better part of the day. It was both a problem and a relief that there were other intelligent life forms on this planet. But without being able to communicate, it was best if he stayed out of sight and watched what happened for now. His stomach growled. Another problem with being on another planet, he had no idea what was edible and what was not. Watching the group below make camp. Bruce paid close attention to a pair that was heading out into the forest alone – most likely to get food. Following behind he watch which plants they picked from and which they passed by.

It appeared Bruce was fortunate, there was a lot of soft chatter between the pair below and pointing things out, or shaking of heads. The taller alien seemed to be teaching the shorter one about the plants.

At least he would get something in his system tonight. He'd need to keep his strength up if he was going to eventually need to confront these inhabitants.

…..

There were so many different kinds of aliens in the arena. All of them chattering excitedly about the upcoming matches. A sleazy looking slug like creature approached John grinning in a way that just rubbed the Lantern wrong.

"Hey there mister. Wanna play the odds on today's matches? I've got some inside information for you." His voice was gurglely and as slick as his business must have been.

John shook his head, "Not interested." He stated before starting to move past.

"Now, now. Just take a look at the lineup we have for today. I'm sure I can find someone you'd like to back." Lifting up a small sphere, it showed a projection of the fights set up for the day with pictures of the combatants.

John disgusted and annoyed glared at the bookie. "I thought WarWorld had stopped this games under King Drega?"

The bookie, looked at him oddly, "No, not exactly. Now its games only using criminals. It keeps the jail cells to a minimum."

John rubbed his forehead, had Drega learned nothing four years ago? Opening his mouth John was about to dismiss the bookie once more, when a figure in one of the pictures caught his attention. "Who is that?" He demanded, his own eyes wide.

The bookie followed the finger John was pointing to his line up and grinned. "Ahh. You have good taste sir." He hissed as a bubble blew from his words and then popped in his mouth. "That's an Unmerian warrior from the Unmei system. Nice on the eyes, but gave quite a fight before her resulting capture. I'll lay odds 5 to 1 special for you. " He bumped Johns waist with his slimy side in what John assumed was to be in a friendly manner.

Annoyed, John shook his head, and rushed inside. He needed to check on the girl, and have a word with King Drega….


	17. Chapter 17 You Thought it was Bad Before

Loss of Control 

Chapter 17 You Thought it was Bad Before

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the original storyline that I am spinning off of. They are property of DC comics and probably a lot of other people I'm not aware of to credit.

Dreiga sat in Mongol's old seat. King of WarWorld, King Dreiga. When John had left here four years ago with Superman, he had really thought that things would be better for this planet…. He'd try to talk to the king, find out what was going on. Why was Pa'rina in the matches? The bookie had said it was only criminals who do battle anymore… So what had the officer done? As he was making his way to the ruling class seats, John noticed another figure join Dreiga to watch the games. He looked similar to Xi'ter in that he had the dark gray skin tone, and the large black mark of destiny prominently displayed across his chest. His hair much like Pa'rina's was midnight black, though this Unmerian male had long hair also secured in a ponytail. His form was not quite as muscular as Xi'ters had been, in fact he looked to be a tad over weight… This had to be Pa'rina's target, Ja'red….

Is that how she ended up in the game listing? She was caught and Ja'red had labeled her a criminal? He recalled the rap sheet Pa'rina had laid out for him on the prince. He was scum!

Finally he had gotten close to the platform Dreiga was on. Now how to get over to him without getting tossed into these games himself? He'd been there, but it would help if Clark was here… Superman had a bit more of a rapport with the current ruler. An idea flitting into his head, John decided to gamble a bit… aiming his ring, John focused on making an image of Superman.

Dreiga Stood to greet the people, "Welcome to WarWorld!" He waved pausing for applause. "A game that offers those who made poor choices a chance at redemption! Survive three rounds and win your freedom!"

There was a roar of cheers from the crowd. At least it was a little different… John sent the green Superman image flying across the stadium.

Dreiga paused, looking on in shock. "Super…man…" he breathed out. Looking to see where the green man of steel went. Leaning over he commanded a servant to bring Superman to speak with him.

The crowd murmured, some wondering who had flown across the coliseum, others recalling the Kyrptonian from four years ago.

"Let's meet our contestants for our first match today!" Dreiga continued, introducing a short toad faced humanoid who had stolen medical supplies from the Amphibious Empire, and a shark like humanoid that had killed a family of five. "All will be revealed on War World!" Dreiga ended his speech as the two combatants were sent to the arena. Seeing the game start, Dreiga turned to his VIP guest and muttered a few words to Ja'red before stepping back inside to meet with his old rival…

….

The village that the hunting party took Joker too was a bit of a problem. The four armed people had their homes in the trees. They were made of the brown wood, and were painted to blend in with the leaves. Pinks and purples. There were pulley elevators and rope ladders to get up and down on.

Joker had been just as talkative with the hunting party and thus he had been gagged several miles back. Now entering the village, they arrived to the sound of drums. The young boys were lined up with drums playing in time with each other. Their second pair of hands kept time with the beat clapping as well. The vibrations flowed through out the village. The young girls dancing with ribbons of vines swirling around them. The women coming forward with food prepared. Large wooden platters were filled with exotic fruits, and meat.

Joker looked at it all, cursing his rotten luck to have come here. Cursing Batman! If he got out of these ropes he'd make all of these red ants were so sorry. He'd find a way!

"Uhuga-na"

Joker had at least learned that word meant forward…

At the end of the procession, Joker could hardly believe his ears as he could swear he could hear English.

"Get yer hands off of me!" A strong prohibition era style accent flowed to his ears.

Eyes wide, Joker decided to uhuga-na faster. He was hoping to see… "Mmmmm-hmmm!" He tried to call to his semi favorite minion through the gag.

Turning around, Harley was in her jester costume, hood down, her skin that showed was painted red, her own hands bound. Her hair had a few seeds and berries threaded in it that seemed to be falling out from her movements. Several girls stepped back at Harley's quick movement. "Puddin'?"She questioned.

Rushing over she lifted her bound arms and threw them over Joker's surprised head, "Puddin!" she squeaked. Nuzzling her face against his chest, covering the ropes with whatever they had used to color her skin red.

Joker was glad to see his right hand, though he was getting rather upset with her. Couldn't the idiotic woman even remove his gag? Lifting his head he slammed it into hers hard.

"Ouch!" she moved back as far as her bound arms would allow and tugged at her arm reflexively to try and rub her abused head, "Hey that hurt!"

Glaring at her, Joker just growled trying to get her to take a hint.

Tilting her head questioningly, baby blues blinking in confusion.

"Tata-i!" The leader of the raiding group commanded as he came forward. Several more words left his mouth rapidly. It was too fast to really make out what was said, not that it meant anything to them anyways. Harley found her hands being lifted off of Joker's neck roughly.

"Hey!" Harley protested, wriggling in the man's grip as he lifted her feet off the ground by her bound wrists. Kicking Harley continued to complain, "Let me go!"

Growling the large red man swung Harley over his shoulder like a school bag, and slammed her against his back. Dazed, it finally calmed the henchwoman a bit. "Mr. J…" she murmured softly looking longingly at her guy as she was carried away.

Joker watched as Harley was taken away. So much for her being a help he thought darkly.

….

Batman lowered the binoculars he had been watching the scene through. He now knew where the village was, part of him was tempted to leave Joker and Harley with the natives while he looked for Robin, but what would the natives do with the pair? They'd be a liability… He leaned back in the tree and weighed his options, continuing to watch as he thought.

…..

A servant hesitantly approached the warrior turned king. "Sire, I- I went to get the Kryptonian and well, I-I-"

Dreiga sighed, shaking his head, "You what?" he demanded. 

"I brought the person who made the image sir."

Dreiga frowned, "hum?" Looking over at the Green Lantern with wide eyes. His left eye still white with blindness from his champion days. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded looking at the man before him.

John gave a bow, "I needed to speak with you, your majesty. It has been a while since we last met."

Dreiga narrowed his eyes as he regarded the man before him trying to place him. "You are friend's with Superman…" he finally figured out. Raising a hand to stroke his chin in thought.

"Yes, your highness, that is correct." He nodded, "I needed to speak with you about one of your criminals."

Dreiga narrowed his eyes once more, dropping his hand, "What about them?" he demanded his tone darkening.

"How much do you know about the criminals that you receive?" John asked trying to tread carefully.

"I have deals with several planets that they send me the criminals that they would have executed, or who requested a chance to escape their crime. The planet sends them over, along with a list of crimes. I line them up and they try their luck." Dreiga shrugged. Walking towards the window to look out at the current battle's progress. "Though, sometimes I get prisoners that I am to be sure never make it out of the ring… I chose their opponents carefully. "Turning to look back at John he frowned, "Why do you ask?"

"You have a girl in the lineup today. " John cautiously proceeded, "an Unmerian." He let his light green eyes search Dreiga's one good dark eye. "She's a cop and a good person. Not a criminal."

Dreiga met John's gaze and shook his head, "I'm afraid you are mistaken." He stated looking back out at the match, "Word must travel fast. She was just acquired today. An assassin here to kill the Prince of Inochi."

Opening his mouth, it suddenly hit John, he couldn't guarantee that Pa'rina had ever meant to take the Prince alive… in fact if she had been sent to kill the Prince, it would make more sense. Closing his mouth again, he let every possibility rush through his head. The only thing he really could do is talk with the girl. "Can I speak with her?" He requested.

Dreiga smirked, "Sure." He replied easily.

John relaxed his shoulders relieved, this wasn't as hard as he thought it would have been.

"If she survives her round."

John's head snapped toward the King, eyes widened with mild panic. Out the window was Pa'rina standing before the crowd. Ja'red doing the announcements.

"Here we have the treacherous Unmerian scum that tried to assassinate her own Prince. She will be facing off with Gorgon!"

There on the stage Pa'rina continued standing docilely as a monstrosity was raised up on the platform. It was large at least 9 foot tall. A bumpy red angry face glared through yellow eyes at the audience. Seven two foot wide tentacles hung from the creatures head and cloaked its body from sight. The seven of them looking like a cape. Once fully on stage Gorgon raised up 5 of its tentacles waving them sporadically, at the end of each blood red appendage a toothy mouth presented itself. Gorgon's main mouth opening in a sadistic toothy grin that was too wide for his face.

"Gorgon was part of a band of extremists that tried to take over the world. He has killed hundreds and eaten several more."

An attendant ran up and presented both Gorgon and Pa'rina with a power axe. "We'll soon see who lives to fight another day in WarWorld!"

The teleportation beams were fired as both Pa'rina and Gorgon found themselves in the field of play.

John pressed his hands against the glass, that opponent, Pa'rina was one that was marked not to make it out alive… She had to be the size, weight and ability difference was too great!

Growling, John turned on Dreiga, and started to charge at him, "You Basta-"

Dreiga held up a hand, "Language Lantern." Glaring at the annoyance, Dreiga crossed his arms, I'll give you one piece of advice, get out of here and think before you do something to join her in the arena!" Starting to exit, Dreiga's voice carried, "Get out."

…..

Diana looked around her. She had been tossed in that sea of darkness and color at the same time… Her head swam a bit from the sensation. Placing a hand to her head she realized that she wasn't alone. Around her were several life forms. They were blue, and had faces like that of an insect. She slowly held her hands out open, in what she hoped was a gesture of peace. "Hello." She spoke slow and clear. "I am -" she placed a hand over her chest. The blue bug like inhabitants instantly reacted. They started to make a combo of whistle and clicks as they appeared to be communicating amongst themselves. Lifting their arms towards her, Diana finally realized that they had claws at the end like a crab. They snapped at her. Diana put her hands up once more. "Ok…" she muttered, "Diana." She tried to keep it simple. "Diana." She repeated. Slowly getting up, the blue aliens back peddled on their four thin lanky legs rapidly. They continued to stare at her, evaluating her.

Diana lightly pushed off the ground with her feet allowing herself to hover in the air just a taste above the ground.

The natives clicked and whistled rapidly again, before, much to her surprise, they bent their legs and seemed to be bowing to her.

Language barriers… she thought. Picking up a small stick, Diana started to draw in the dusty orange soil. The group surrounding her crept closer obviously curios as to what the stranger was doing. Doing her best to draw Batman, Diana smiled at the stick figure. He had little bat ears on top of his head, a scowl on his face and a cape. She really hoped that he was ok. She didn't see anyone else around her, except for the blue natives. Hopefully Tim was with Batman. Though, did Bruce even know she was here?

The creatures looked at the drawing chattering excitedly. One that seemed braver than the others leaned down and using one of its claw tips drew an image in the soil as well. Diana walked closer to get a look. It was a stick figure of them, it had their tall lean head, very similar to J'ohn's real form. Then it had the two claws, and the large torso that connected the four slender legs.

Smiling Diana nodded. Might as well make friends. Maybe they could help her find the others…

…..

Pa'rina leveled her opponent with a look, her legs parted, shoulder's square. She held the axe in her hands. Her body ached from the beating she had taken when she was captured… However, if she gave in to the pain now, she'd die.

Tilting her head she let her hair spill onto her face, her form instantly looking more menacing. The blue light from the energy on the axe head elongating the shadows on her face, making her eyes look hollow, and deadly.

Gorgon laughed as he lifted five of his intestine like 'hair' up, the mouths on the end salivating as they opened and closed their jaws menacingly.

The stood sizing each other up for a few moments, then Gorgon moved to action. The first tentacle came crashing down on the stop Pa'rina had stood. The six foot warrior, leapt from the spot to a good 10 feet into the air. Her long black ponytail flittering in the wind of her movement.

She held the axe up ready to wield it on the trip back down. Her target was below her, three tentacles shot up from Gorgon and tried to intercept her. Swinging the axe, it hissed from the movement and cut into one of the oncoming appendages. Gorgon gave a cry of pain as the injured snake like hair fell away, blood squirting where it had nearly been severed. The other two had grasped on to the Unmerian officer one bit into her left leg, and the other into her right arm. Crying out herself she twisted and swung the axe again.

The crowd was cheering and enjoying the match. John stood there watching in horror. She had gotten a good hit in, but this guy was going to be tough…

There was another scream from the Gorgon as this time one of his tentacles dropped mouthless to the ground. The mouth still attracted to Pa'rina's right bicep. Without the upper tentacle to support her the gray toned officer's torso tried to continue her fall to the ground, the only thing holding her up was the mouthed appendage that was chewing on her left thigh.

Taking a deep breath, and wincing from the pain, Pa'ring raised the now semi free right hand and punched the remaining tentacle five times.

Gorgon hissing with continued pain, raised two more mouthed limbs toward his prey. One lowered itself right onto her face. Feeling confident he used the two appendages that were currently biting her to hold firm as he slammed her into the ground.

Dropping the axe, she lay still for a heartbeat. The remaining limbs raising up and were ready to crash down upon her for, Gorgon was going to eat her live!

John looked on frozen. She was losing… she might already be dead… dread clenched at him. He could go up there…. He could, but would it even help her at this point? He had been worried but part of him thought like the other women he surrounded himself with that she would be able to beat this monster, that she would surprise her 'Prince'. Of course he was so stupid, he was Unmerian! He'd know the limits of her abilities and set her up against someone she couldn't possibly win against on her own! She was going to die…

….

Harley had regained her nerve and had started struggling again about 15 minutes ago. Her captor did not seem impressed by this. He had a clay bowl full of that red stuff they had smeared on her earlier and was painting her face again. He had taken her into one of the tree houses. Harley wasn't too happy that she was alone with this guy…

"No, no and no!" she cried as she kicked the brute in the stomach. She grinned at her victory.

"Tata-i!" the man growled at her grabbing her by her bound hands and yanking her forward.

Yelping, Harley fell into the guys lap. Two hands holding her there, he used the other two to finish applying the red paint to her face.

Looking up at the man that had her a little too close for comfort Harley waited to see what his next move would be… The fact that she had stilled seemed to have pleased the guy. He stated the next words in a practical purr, "Hayi-ya." She blinked.

"Hayi-ya?" she questioned.

A smile flittered across the man's face, "Hayi-ya." He nodded, starting to stroke her blond hair.

Frowning Harley wasn't too fond of this, and waited another few strokes before acting. Bringing her bound hands up and down hard she wasn't too sure about their anatomy but she hit something. Not wasting a moment, Harley pushed off her hands and flipped herself onto her feet.

The Red man started to stand but Harley was quick to spin and kick the man hard in the jaw. Falling backward Harley raced forward and used her joined hands she hit the man a few more times. When she was sure he was unconscious, Harley peeked out the door, she needed to find Mr. J and get out of here…

…

Tim's head swam. He had fallen through that hole with the others… He had seen a couple of the Joker's hired help walking around. Tim had dove into the bushes and stayed really still until they had passed. He had tried to call Bruce, but the com appeared to be worthless here… Alone and not sure where he was, or even how to get home, Tim took stalk of what he had. 5 bola's, 1 pair binoculars, 10 smoke pellets, 6 batarangs, 5 exploding batarangs, his grapple gun, 1 gas mask, 1 worthless comlink, and 3 flash energy bars. He could tell he wasn't anywhere he could think of on Earth. What if Bruce though he died? Tim shuttered at the thought that he might have to spend the rest of his life alone on wherever here was…

Deciding he'd have time to freak out later, Tim took one of the bola's and a batarang. Finding a good sized stick he tied the projectile to the stick to make a spear. Now he needed to think about finding food and shelter. Once he had a handle on things, he'd start looking for places he could go to that if someone were looking for him he'd be easier to find.

…

The crowd was silent, watching the screen. The odds for Pa'rina winning were paying out higher every moment it looked more and more like she was dead. No one was beating on her…

Ja'red grinned. Standing up he walked to the end of the platform for all to see, "This match is done, Gorgon –"

The speech cut off as there was movement on the screen. Ja'red looked on wide eyed, not believing what he was seeing. The audience fell under another hush as they stared transfixed at what was occurring.

Gorgon was screaming, his appendages flying in a rainstorm of blood each one severed from his form. Without the support of the seven tentacles the short four foot bumpy red faced creature in a blood spattered yellow and white tunic dropped to its knees screaming in agony. His overly large mouth open wide.

Pa'rina landed on the ground gracefully, one hand leading before the rest of her crouched position. Her black eyes were alight with a green glow, much like a cat's in the dark. Standing up, the camera showed how badly injured she was. Her black pants, had holes in them where blood flowed freely from the deep bites. Her arms also had several deep bite wounds that was rapidly turning what was left of her black outfit red. Her face also had several teeth marks where the skin had been punctured and pulled away.

Turning to her still screaming combatant, Pa'rina flexed her hand, her nails had sharped and droplets of red were already falling from the dark built in weapons. "You finally put them all in one place.." she hissed.

John looked away as Gorgon screamed his last. He didn't know if he was glad at this moment or not that Pa'rina really was a tough one.

The camera took in her appearance as she stood there impassively, dripping with both her and Gorgon's life blood. She was so tired, but she had to remain standing… just a bit longer….

Ja'red looked white as a sheet. She was injured yes, but she was supposed to be dead! Turning to look at Dreiga Ja'red seemed to be talking frantically to the other ruler.

Dreiga stood, "The match has been decided, it goes to the Unmerian!" The people cheered as the camera turned off and Pa'rina was sent back to the dank underground dungeon.

Finally there, she dropped to her knees, hand lightly touching the blue brick wall to support herself. She was exhausted, she needed to see to her wounds first… then she could pass out. Her vision was wavering, she tried to rip a piece of cloth from the bottom her pant legs to make a bandage or two, her nails were out - the color dulled from the aftermath of the fight. She couldn't put enough pressure into her movement to try and cut the fabric. Her eyes closed and her head swooned backwards. Forcing her head to right itself, she tried again, knowing if she fell asleep now without doing anything she'd never wake up… even if she did do something she might not…

…

Diana followed the blue creatures to their cave system of underground homes. She wanted to look for the others, but if she could get these natives help, it might be worth the investment. Their home was illuminated by glowing crystals underground. They were breath taking. They had led her to a large fork in the caves, this seemed to be like a connecting hallway of sorts. Here they had stopped and she had followed suit. Many stayed, but a few scurried off.

When they came back they were cumbersomely rolling a rock out with them. Diana not wanting them to continue struggling walked over and lifted the rock easily. "Where to?" she asked more for her benefit than theirs as they couldn't understand her language anyways.

She was rapidly getting used to hearing the clicks, squeaks and whistles that made up their language. She started to walk back towards where she had been standing earlier, but the blue creatures started to block her way and open a path toward the center if the chamber. Following the path, Diana smiled, smart creatures finding a way to communicate without words…

Placing the rock down finally when they completely boxed her in, they pressed so close that she had to get onto the stone or fall. Once on the stone the blue creatures started to sway back and forth and seemed to sing in their own way. It was a beautiful song.

It seemed to resonate and echo off the cavern walls. A gentle humming, it would go slow, speed up and then slow down again. Diana smiled as she soon found herself too swaying with the rhythm.

Thinking wasn't really something she could comprehend as her head swam with the sound of the notes. She was so lost in the music. She continued to sway, the blue of the creatures, and the glow from the crystals, they blurred and blended together. The song so soft and sweet, she started to hum along with them. She didn't even comprehend when loud footsteps started towards the cavern corridor from further in… It was just so pretty…. It didn't even occur to her that the blue creatures had now all run away leaving her alone, still humming the tune to herself, unaware of her surroundings.

…..

Clark was worried. He and Flash had returned the Batplane and then reported back to the watch tower.

Superman was quick to take charge, "We need to know what the Joker used, yesterday!" Running a hand through his black hair flustered, "Flash, you get Ray Palmer up here, I want him analyzing the video from the news reports, then you start going through the reports in Gotham for the past month of stolen scientific and military tech. I'll call Lois and see if she knows anything about missing tech. Oh and we need to get someone… Dr. Fate maybe can try and see if he can figure out where they are-" Finally actually looking at Wally, he saw that the speedster who was stressing himself, hadn't paid attention to a word he said. Wally had been pacing so quickly that there was a hole in the carpet where he had been running and a small fire was burning at one end.

"Wally!" he snapped, trying to get his friend's attention.

"Huh?" he asked stopping and regarding Superman questioningly.

"Never mind," Clark took two fingers to massage the bridge of his nose, "can you please just look at the past month's tech and military thefts in Gotham?"

"On it!" he chirped before dashing off. Clark shook his head and went off to get started on the to do list he had raddled off earlier.

…..

John looked at the barely conscious woman he had been traveling with. She had taken down that behemoth at great cost to herself. He didn't know if Dreiga's invitation was still available or not, but he had slipped down here as fast as he could after the match.

"Pa'rina." He called softly urgency flavoring his words. He knelt beside her and cradled her against him. Looking down at her he noted the wounds. So much blood… he used the power of his ring to make green glowing bandages… though he'd need a more permeate solution. He had been away from home for days… his ring was starting to run out of power. He'd need to get her out of here… If he could get her back to her ship he could fly it back home… There he could recharge his ring and the Justice League could watch out for her until she recovered…. One problem, how was he going to get both of them out of here alive, given how bad off the gray skinned girl was?

…

Tim scratched at his arm again as he tried to find an animal for dinner. He was tempted to look for water instead, He felt so itchy… scratching his arm again, he frowned. It was driving him crazy. His legs itched, his arms, hands, neck, face, and head all itched! It just seemed to be getting worse…

Tim began to wonder if he had walked through something poisonous… scratching again, Tim heard a sound, it was twig snap. Freezing the boy slowly started to turn, trying not to startle the creature that might be his dinner… This head choose that moment to itch so badly he almost wanted to cry if he didn't scratch it. Finally giving in, he scratched it, but then his arms and legs got jealous and needed his attention too. Dropping his spear in his haste to satisfy the itching sensation, he heard a roar. Turning around, Robin only had his instincts to thank for not being the large toothed animal's dinner as it pounced. It had purple fur and large Elephant like ears, its mouth was insanely large taking up most of its face. Row upon row of sharp teeth shined in its mouth where it salivated. Robin decided his best course of action was to run for it. He left his spear behind in his haste.

To be continued….


End file.
